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I 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES 



COLT.E( TED 



DURING A WINTER'S TOUR 

IN 

EGYPT Al^B THE HOLY 
LAND. 



BY 



ADAM STEINMETZ KENNARD. 

I! 



LONDON: 
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
J 855. 



7a 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Malta. 

Departure from England. — Floods everywhere. — Compelled 
to post from Chalons to Lyons. — Pont de Saint Esprit. — 
Porters of Avignon. — Arrival at Marseilles. — Southern Sun- 
shine. — Quarantine Harbour of Malta - - Page 1 

CHAP. II. 
Alexandria. 

Land Ahead ! — First glimpse of Egypt. — Custom-House. — 
Donkey-boys. — The Bazaars. — Sai'd Pasha. — Mahmoudieh 
Canal. — Landing at Boulac. — Fete of the Doseh - 9 

CHAP. m. 
Cairo. 

The Turkish Bazaar. — Europeans' first Ambition on Arrival 
in Cairo. — Interior of a Mosque. — The El-Azhar. — An 
awkward Position - - - - - 22 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. IV. 

Caieexe Bazaars. 

Shopping in Cairo. — The Mussulman Butcher. — The Ven- 
dor of Crockery. — Chicanery severely punished. — Cairene 
Justice. — I\lustapha the Cook. — The " Buchsheesh "-loving 
Cadi ------ Page 33 

CHAP. V. 
The Hareem. 

Poetry of Eastern Life. — Coffee Shops. — Lulu the Circassian 
Slave. — Her Adventures. — Her Capture. — The Women's 
Prison. — Selim and Naba. — Xaba thrown into Prison. — 
What the Italian Druggist saw. — Xaba's Death. — The 
Hareem abroad. — Courtship in Cairo. — The Rumeyleh. 

44 

CHAP. VI. 

Preparations for the Nile Voyage. 

The Author finds a Friend. — We engage a Dragoman.— Origin 
of Dragomen. — Ibrahim is introduced to the Reader. — Selec- 
tion of a Dahabieh. — We lay in Stores for our Voyage. — 
Our Dragoman's Talents discovered to be but Shadows. — 
Babel at Boulak. — Moor for the Xight under the Island of 
Ehoda - - - - - - - 60 

CHAP. VII. 
Nile Life. 

An Elysium on Earth. — Creeping Things innumerable. — Sketch 
of our daily Life. — An Arab Fight. — Nile Breezes. — Society 
on the Nile. — Benisoueff. — Arab Gratitude. — Abda the 
black Cook - - - - - - 70 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. YIII. 

KoLSAN Palms. 

Sunset at Kolsan. — The Howadji pry into their own Affairs. — 
Dangers of Gebel Aboofeyda. — Our first Meeting with some 
Polish jSToblemen is a foul one. — Manfaloot. — Banks of the 
Nile after Nightfall.— The Vulture's Meal - Page 81 

CHAP. IX. 

OSIOOT. 

The Governor's Palace. — The Bazaars. — The Barber of Osioot. 

— Yiew from Stabl Antar. — The Bread-baking. — Bread 
Dreams. — An Arab Breakfast. — A fresh Breeze. — We at- 
tempt to "get up" fine Linen. — Wonders of Denderah. — 
The Inscription on the Portico - - - - 89 

CHAP. X. 
Thebes. 

Eeception at Thebes. — Valley of Death. — Belzoni's Tomb. — 
Old Egyptians' Method of Self-perpetuation. — Bas-reliefs. — - 
The Bones of Rameses. — Plain of Thebes. — Medeenet Haboo. 

— Tombs of the Assaseef. — Southwards - - 103 

CHAP. XI. 

ESNE. 

Temple at Esne. — A Coffee Shop. — Ghawazee. — Description 
of the Dance. — One other jpas, — Their Expulsion from 
Cairo. — The Viceroy's Visit to Esne. — His Reception of the 
Ghawazee - - - - - -118 

CHAP. XII. 
Ibrahim. 

Our Dragoman gets out on the wrong Side of his Bed. — His 
Notions of Cleanliness. — Matters brought to a Crisis. — Ibra- 



vm 



CONTEXTS. 



him leaves us. — Our Efforts to do without him. — Com-Ombo. 
— Arrival at Assouan. — Ibrahim receives us on landing. — 
The Cadi of Assouan — his Sentence. — We are applauded by 
the Crowd - Page 127 

CHAP. XIII. 

The Cataracts. 

AVho is the real Sheikh of the Cataracts ? — Ancient Syene. — 
Isle of Elephantine. — View of the Cataracts from the Heights 
of Mahratta. — Our Reis finds the real Sheikh. — He promises 
to take us up in one Day . - - - 143 

CHAP. xr\^ 

A Morning among the Flowers and Puins of Philse. — We pass 
the first Gate of the Cataracts. — Mussulman Observance of 
the Sabbath. — Sand Storm. — Afloat in Xubia. — The men 
demand a Bucksheesh of no ordinary Character. — Our Mode 
of complying with the Demand - - - -162 

CHAP. XY. 
Nubia. 

The Scene changes. — Small Rapid at Kalabsheh. — Grottoes of 
Bayt-el- Welled. — Temple of Kalabsheh. — A Xubian Girl's 
Full-dress. — ^Pass the Tropic of Cancer. — Sakia Music. — 
Dav Dreams. — Adventure with a Crocodile. — A Mistake. — 
Abda attires himself gorgeously. — Aboo-Simbel. — Fui'-thest 
South. — Our Boat dismantled. — Xorthwards - - 161 

CHAP. XVI. 
Mutiny of the Crew. 

Altercation with the Reis — he shows Fight — he takes leave 
of us. — Temple of A'mada. — The learned Pair. — Sun- 



CONTENTS. 



ix 



set from tlie Heights of Corusco. — Another peep at Philse. — 
Descent of the Cataracts . - - Page 178 

CHAP. XVII. 
Karnak, 

Our Crew desert en masse. — How we tracked our own Boat. — 
Salutary Effect of the Bastinado upon the Crew. — Arrival at 
Luxor. — Karnak by Moonlight. — The Sweets of Solitude. — 
That Solitude sometimes violated. — Grottoes of Beni-Hassan. 

189 

CHAP. XYIII. 
Pyramids. 

Mounting a Camel for the first Time. — The petrified Forest. — 
Dangers of Camel-riding in Cairo. — Heliopolis. — An Ex- 
cursion to the Pyramids. — The Sphinx. — Autograph Mania. 
The Great Pyramid. — Excavations at Sakkara. — The French- 
man and his Monkeys. — The Osiride Column at Mitrahenny. 
— Difficulty of disembarking Donkeys - - - 206 

CHAP. XIX. 
The Desert. 

I find another Friend. — Preparations for crossing the Desert. — 
We engage another Dragoman. — A Native Wedding. — Our 
Caravan completed. — We leave Cairo. — Our first Encamp- 
ment. — Pleasures of Camel-riding. — Encamp at Belbeys. — 
My Friend is robbed of his Watch. — The Kampseen Wind. 

225 

CHAP. XX. 

Encounter with Bedouins. 

A Night March.-— The Tomb of a Desert Sheikh. — Salla-hea. 
— We are stopped by a Party of marauding Bedouins. — 
Mohammad's Zeal meets with a Check. — Blood is Drawn. — 
Mohammad cut down. — We surrender. — Mounting Guard 



X 



COXTEXTS. 



over our Tents during the Night. — We are carried off. — 
Mirage. — An Oasis. — Bedouin Encampment. — Mohammad's 
Eloquence. — We are released - - - Page 241 

CHAP. XXE 
El-Arish. 

Potage a la Desert. — Encamp at Gatieh. — Euins of Cassim. — 
River of Egypt. — The Sea. — Sunset in the Desert. — Our 
Tents blown down during the Xight. — Crossing a Salt Lake. 

— One of our Camels breaks its Leg. — Arrival at El-Arish. — 
Fatalism. — Our American Friends. — We spend the Evening 
with them — The Governor of El-Arish. — His Watch 261 

CHAP. XXII. 

Palestine. 

Columns of Rephia. — Ehan-Younes. — Are arrested by the 
Quarantine Officers. — Arrival at Gaza. — Our Quarantine 
Quarters. — Bazaars of Gaza. — Ruins of Askelon. — Encamp 
at Ashdod= — Mohammad mounts Guard. — Encamp at Ram- 
lah. — Yisit to Jaffa. — Sharon. — Affection shown to Animals 
in the East - - - - - - 274 

CHAP. XXIIT. 

JePvUSALE^I. 

Mountains of Judsea. — Village of Emmaus. — Hotel " Touters." 

— Our Guide Giuseppe. — Via Dolorosa. — Gethsemane. — 
View from the Mount of Olives. — Singular Proximity of all 
Spots of Interest. — Residence of Dives. — Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre. — The Haram-el-Shereef- — Jews' wailing 
Place. — Fountain of Enrogel - 288 

CHAP. XXIV. 
Mar Saba. 

Bedouin Hospitality. — Sheikh Aboo Sea. — We dine a-la-mode. 

— An Eastern Kight Sky. — A Dance round the Camp Fires 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



at J ericho. — The J ordan. — The Dead Sea. — The Buoyancy 
of its Waters. — Convent of Mar-Saba. — Bethlehem. — The 
Convent of our Lady. — Solomon's Pools.-— Rachel's Tomb. 

Page 313 

CHAP. XXV. 

Last Days in Jerusalem. 

The Traveller's last Sketch. — A Mussulman Fete, 
the sacred Precincts of the Haram-el-Shereef 
summarily dealt with. — Jerusalem by Moonlight, 
ments in Jerusalem - 

CHAP. XXVL 
Nablous. 

Our Encampment at Beer. — Buins of Shiloh. — Beauty of the 
Valley of ISTablous. — Robbing Propensities of the Natives. — 
We take Precautions against Burglaries. — Tents are cut into 
during the Night, — Jacob's Well. — Robbery investigated. — 
Hired Watchers suspected. — They receive the Bastinado. — 
Ruins of Samaria. — A coup-de-main. — Encamp at Yanin. — 
View from Jezreel. Mount Tabor. — Pilgrims' Souvenirs. 

342 

CHAP. XXVII. 
Nazareth. 

Sylvan Aspect of the Country round Tabor. — A Syrian Morn- 
ing. — Deep Galilee. — -Ruins of Tiberias, — Village of Cana. 
— Arrival at ISTazareth. — The Turkish Bey. — The Rival 
Cooks. — Our grand Junction Dinner. — Meet with some Nile 
Friends. — An Attempt to walk through Nazareth after Dark 
is defeated by the Dogs. — Sunrise near Nazareth. — Caiffa. — 
Mount Carmel. — Padre Carlo. — Convent of St. Elias. — Bay 
of Acre. — Our Tents are not to be found « - 360 

CHAP. XXVIII. 

Lebanon. 

Town of Acre. — Ladder of Tyre. — Ruins of ancient Tyre. — 



— We cross 
. — A^^e are 
—Last Mo- 
- 384 



CONTENTS. 



The Approach to Saida. — The Town. — Euins of Sidon. — 
Fertility of the Environs of Saida. — V/e commence our 
Ascent of the Lebanon. — Castle of Djouni. — Maronites and 
Druses. — My Horse causes me much Anxiety. — Robber 
Country. — ^ First View of Damascus - - Page 378 

CHAP. XXIX. 
Damascus. 

Damascus as contrasted -with Cairo. — Bazaars. — Khans. — The 
City sleeps. — Our Hotel. — The River Barrada. — Coffee 
Shops. — Our triumphant Departure from Damascus - 394 

CHAP. XXX. 
Baalbec. 

A Thunderstorm. — Ruins of Baalbec. — Approach the Foot of 
Gebel Makmel. — Derr-el-Akma. — An American Blunder. — 
Our Encampment at Ain Ette. — Summit of Gebel Makmel. — 
The Cedars of Lebanon. — Bischerre. — Valley of the Kadisha. 
— Site of Eden. — Batroum. — Adonis River. — Djouni. — 
Our last Encampment ----- 401 

CHAP. XXXI. 

Farewell to the East. 

Beyrout. — I take Leave of all my travelling Compaaions, — 
Voyage to Alexandria. — Port of Jaffa. — Quarantine at Alex- 
andria. — An Excursion to Aboukir. — A strange Specimen 
of Humanity. — Commencement of Ramadan. — A Peep by 
Xight at the Bazaars during Ramadan. — Set Sail for Europe. 

413 

CHAP. XXXII. 

Ix CoxcLrsiON. 

Landing at Trieste. — A few Days in Venice. — A Trip to Ve- 
rona. — A Morning in Padua. — Return to Trieste. — An 
Austrian Custom-House. — Arrival at Adelsberg. — My con- 
cluding Adventure. — The Grottoes of Adelsberg - 422 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAPTER L 

MALTA. 

If English literature numbered amongst its curi- 
osities a book entitled Grammar on Times and 
Seasons/' that book would, beyond all doubt, lay it 
down as a rule that such phrases as " a warm sun," 
^^a cloudless sky," ^^thermometer at 70"" in the 
shade," agreed in gender, number, and case with 
the word June^ and would furthermore refer the 
student in versification to his Gradus ad Parnas- 
sum " for such epithets as bitterly cold," sunless," 
" thermometer below zero," to be used in connection 
with the word December, 



2 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



In times past, — times about which in the mind of 
every Englishman there floats, I am persuaded, a 
myth as to their haying been essentially good — one 
had to succumb to these rules, and to listen with 
wonder, akin to doubt, to those few travellers who 
talked about southern suns and azure skies at a 
time when we heaped logs on to our Christmas fires, 
listening to the wind as it roared in the chimney, or 
to the vibration of our window lattices as we crept 
shivering into bed. Fortunately for us who have 
nothing to do with those good old times, and who find 
ourselves struggling to be happy in these days of 
steamboats, railways, and sixpenny cabs, we have 
but as it were to take a short preparatory canter, to 
find ourselves freed from all those rules which 
fettered our ancestors, and rejoicing in turn-down 
collars and white felt wide-awakes, whilst our friends 
in England are skating on the Serpentine, or warm- 
ins; their toes with the handles of their huntino; 
whips, as they listen for the gone away " at cover- 
side. Towards the close of Xovember, and at that 
happy age when a man is pronounced too young for 
the serious business of life, and too old for anything 
short of it, I set my face, by way of Marseilles and 
Malta, towards the sun-rising ; in other words, I left 
London, sincerely trusting to find myself at the ex- 



CHALOXS TO LYONS. 



3 



piration of a few weeks in Egypt and the romantic 
East. 

England was literally under water when I bade 
its white cliffs adieu ; and a Venetian standing in 
the Abingdon Eoad might have mistaken Oxford for 
his native sea-girt city, so extensive were the floods 
about it; nor was it until I had nearly reached 
Marseilles that I caught a glimpse of the sweet South. 

It was raining when I landed at Boulogne : the 
same shower accompanied me to Paris, and drove 
with me along the Rue de la Paix to my hotel. It 
might have ceased during part of the few hours that 
I remained in the French capital, but had certainly 
commenced again with renewed vigour when I left 
by the night train for Chalons. 

At five o'clock the next morning I might have 
been seen standing in the rain on the quai at 
Chalons, quite sorry to find that the floods had ren- 
dered steam navigation on the Saone out of the 
question. A large bustling sort of a place is the 
Hotel de Pare ; however, it managed to supply me 
with coffee and cold chicken, and over this I pon- 
dered as to what to do under existing circumstances. 

The steamer which was to convey me to Malta left 
Marseilles on the morning of the 4th of December, 
so that it was natural in me to entertain the wish to 

B 2 



4 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



be at the last-named placed by the Srd, in order to 
catch it. Of course the only thing to be done was 
to post : then as to the conveyance — could I have 
a carriage ? 

I had hardly thrown out the question when I was 
accosted by a French gentleman^ who^ informing me 
that he was about to start for Lyons in a carriage 
capable of holding more than one^ offered me a seat 
on condition of my sharing the expense. With this 
well-timed proposal I immediately closed, and half 
an hour afterwards was being whirrupped" along 
the road to Lyons by a French post-boy in a pair of 
boots. 

Ten minutes of our journey had hardly passed 
when we were overtaken by Lord Brougham in a 
carriage and four on his way to Cannes ; but as it is 
not the ton in French road etiquette for one poster 
to pass another on the road, we were in company all 
day, dining and supping together in the quaint back 
kitchens of the different posting houses. 

After travelling in a drenching rain from seven in 
the morning till eight at night, we found ourselves 
at the small town of Yillefranche (exactly three posts 
from the object of our affections — Lyons), and com- 
pelled to stop for the night, as there was not a horse 
to be had for love or money ; so I made the best of 
it in a most questionable hotel, and after a night cold 



LEAVE MARSEILLES FOR MALTA. 5 



and dreary, spent between the sheets of a tiny little 
bed, in one corner of a vast bedroom from the 
ceiling of which, in many parts, the rain dripped 
through on to the worm-eaten boards, I turned 
out before daybreak, and was off with my Gallic 
friend for Lyons, leaving Lord Brougham still 
asleep in the half-ruined auberge of Villefranche. 

Steaming all day down the magnificent Rhone, I 
gradually crept out of the rain ; and surmounting the 
terrors of the well-known Pont de Saint Esprit*, and 
passing scatheless through the hands of those harpies, 
the porters of Avignon, I stepped into southern 
sunshine at Marseilles. 

At six o'clock on the morning of December 4th I 
went on board the French steamer Caire, and was 
soon after steaming out to sea past the Quarantine 
Islands. It was lovely as a June day in England, 
and already were the blue waters of the Mediter- 
ranean being danced over by those white-winged 
beautiful feluccas, which looked so fairy-like as they 
bent to the morning breeze, that one could hardly 
believe they were nothing more nor less than fishing- 

* The Pont de Saint Esprit is an old bridge over the Rhone, 
a little below Valence, through which the river rushes with 
fearful velocity, causing the traveller just one anxious moment 
as he is carried along, the paddle-boxes of the steamer seeming 
almost to touch the stone piers on either side. 

B 3 



6 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



smacks: however^ so it was; but as our paddles went 
round so went we away, and soon the white sails 
flittered and sparkled in the far distance like broken 
tops of waves. 

The next morning at sunrise saw us steaming 
through the Straits of Bonifacio; and baskino; all 
that day and the next in the southern heat of a 
December sun, we made fast to our moorings in the 
quarantine harbour of Malta at five o'clock on 
the morning of the 7th. The first glimpse of the 
East is caught at Malta : you bid adieu to Europe 
at Marseilles, but lest the change from hats and 
carriages to turbans and camels should be too 
sudden by landing directly in Alexandria, you are 
enabled to let yourself gently down by stopping for 
a few days at Malta. 

As I stood on the deck of the Caire preparatory 
to landing, gazing round the magnificent harbour, I 
found something to interest me at every point. 
Looking towards the Lazaretto my eye was first 
arrested by groups of swarthy Arabs, ranged, blue- 
breeched and tui'baned, into lines on the steps of the 
port, deep in their matutinal devotions. Every- 
where were to be seen forts, churches, domes, and 
long lines of low flat-roofed houses, all built in the 
white Maltese stone. Not a blade of any green 
thing gave rehef to the eye from the glare, which 



QUARANTINE HARBOUR OF MALTA. 7 



was excessive. Boats without number were darting 
about in all directions; bells of all sizes were toll- 
ing^ ringing,, and clanging from every conceivable 
quarter ; and every one seemed in the best possible 
spirits. I now landed, and wound my way up into 
the town through noisy groups of English, Italian, 
and Maltese sailors, under gateways, across draw- 
bridges, up steps, and through subterranean passages 
hewn out of the solid rock, and at length found 
myself in the Strada San Paolo, where some friends, 
who had kindly offered to receive me during my stay 
in the island, resided. 

So many and detailed have been the descriptions 
of our little Mediterranean fortress, that I refrain 
from expatiating on a subject about which I doubt 
not that most of my readers are quite as well, if not 
better, informed than I am: and again, as I intend 
the pages of which this volume is composed to be 
devoted entirely to the East, I might be accused of 
duplicity, or at any rate injustice, if I started with a 
lengthy description of any place that was not bond 
fide Eastern. 

The time that I omitted to spend in Valetta, the 
capital town, I employed in watching the troops on 
parade at Florian, rides along the sea-shore to San 
Julian, or in country walks — a term, by the waj , 

B 4 



8 



EASTERN EXPER1E:>XES. 



which lacks a due regard to truth; for so totally 
devoid of anything like country is Malta^ that I 
remember when^ on my arrival^ as I stood on the 
deck of the Caire, gazing on the scene around me, 
my eye was caught by what appeared to me an 
immensely high dead wall, I concluded that it was a 
prison or something of that kind ; but, as an obse- 
quious domestique de place was at that moment 
tendering me his services, I turned to him for an 
explanation, and the following little dialogue took 
place, the result of which, I am afraid, considerably 
lowered me in the estimation of the worthy ^Maltese. 
Pointing with my finger to the object in question, I 
inquired the name of that rather unsightly building. 

What building. Sir ? I see no building." Why, 
that building," said I, right in front ; it's big 
enough." The poor fellow looked really disgusted 
with me, as turning away he said, ^' Why Sir, those 
are potato fields, and no buildings at aU." Xow it 
may seem that some most extraordinary mirage was 
at work in my brain, for me to build a second 
MiUbank penitentiary out of a potato field : but the 
fact was, that it was a field made out of a number of 
stone terraces, one above another ; and as there was 
no oTeen visible at the distance at which I stood, 
they presented to me the appearance of a high blank 
wall, which accounts for my little mistake. 



FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE LAND OF EGYPT. 9 



CHAR II. 

ALEXANDRIA. 

I WAS standing one morning in the bows of the 
steamer which had brought me from Malta^ gazing 
upon what I considered a boundless waste of waters, 
when " Land a-head ! " was shouted from the foretop, 
and, soon after, bringing my eyes to bear in the 
direction of the bowsprit-end, I saw, to my astonish- 
ment, a column rise up out of the sea, and stand on 
the horizon, hardly marked against the liquid sky. 
Soon after, swarms of windmills emerged from the 
same watery bed, establishing for themselves a posi- 
tion on its right ; then gradually on the extreme 
left rose the Pasha's palace and lofty hareem ; gleam- 
ing sand-banks soon filled up the intervals ; and the 
whole was pointed out to me as the important city 
of Alexandria; — the above-mentioned column being 
designated as Pompey's Pillar. 

And now behold us at anchor in the Egyptian 
port ! the steamer enveloped by a perfect cloud of 



10 



EASTEEX EXPEP.IEXCES. 



small boats^ in each a couple of demi-nude bronzed 
Arabs^ more clamorous than all the cabmen in 
London for fares : nor was the hubbub much less on 
board — every one preparing to be off, and rusliing 
franticly about, utterly regardless of any one or any- 
thing else in this wide workb save self and 
luggage." Piles and piles of black tin boxes^ con- 
taining the mails^ and labelled India/* lay heaped 
about everywhere, rendeiing it almost impossible for 
one to wallv two feet in a straight line in any direc- 
tion. However, this was all fun to me : I had 
naught to care for but a small portmanteau, and of 
this I had possessed myself long before the ^' tug of 
war " commenced ; and, selfish as it may seem, I 
must confess that the scene before me afforded me 
no little amusement. 

Another five minutes, and I was actually standing 
in the land of Egypt ! Xo matter what my feelings 
were, I had no time then for dreams, which would 
sui^ely have uphfted me from the 19th century, and 
have plunged me deep into ages long since rolled by. 
I had stepped out of an Ai^ab boat, and had placed 
my foot, it is true, on Egyptian ground ; but, seeing 
that I was in the dominions of Abbas Pasha's custom- 
house, not all the Pharaohs, nor all the mighty 
Alexanders, nor all the Haroun-el-Rasheeds, that 



LANDING AT ALEXANDRIA. 



11 



had ever graced the pages of history^ would have 
broken through the regulations of this establishment: 
and yet it is too bad of me to speak thus, — The 
Egyptian custom-house is not such a dragon as my 
words would seem to imply ; for though, may be, 
the softest and most musical tale ever breathed by 
Persian poet would fail to give it even a favour- 
able opinion of the traveller, a small bucksheesh of 
ten piastres would render it yours most obediently," 
whether in the matter of your luggage, or your 
view of things in general. The ordeal passed, I at 
once issued forth, fully prepared to drink in all the 
poetry of the Arabian Nights in everything I saw ; yet 
still was that pleasure denied me. Those rose-tinted 
dreams, in which I had indulged at the moment of 
my landing — and which had been so cruelly checked 
by the words " What have you to declare ? " — were 
completely dispelled by an attack made upon me by 
a swarm of donkey-boys, who, with their long-eared 
animals, were striving to gain my affections by hook 
or by crook. To this end there were some half-dozen 
behind, each one endeavouring to push his own 
donkey, after the manner of the Irishman's pig, 
between my legs, so as to force me to mount without 
the aid of stirrups; others seemed to think that if they 
could induce their animals to get their fore-legs into 



12 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



my waistcoat pockets^ the wished for result would be 
gained : in the outer circle were more^ some kicking 
and some rearing, with a view, I suppose, of showing 
off their going " qualities ; whilst all other sounds 
were swallowed up in the multitudinous cries of I 
say, master ! I the best jackass I " — This the berry 
good one!" — ^^Ride, master! this one five piastres 
all day." And so the traveller has to mount the 
nearest, and think himself fortunate if he does not 
find himself, like one of Astley's heroes, astride of 
two instead of one ; for so pertinacious are they in 
pushing then* donkeys on you, that, even when your 
choice is made, and you are occupied with putting 
your foot in the stirrup, another animal is squeezed so 
close to the one you are abeady mounting, that 
having given the right leg its swing, you find your- 
self between two, instead of on one. 

However, it is a great blessing that this awful 
confusion cannot last for ever ; and after an immense 
deal of anger and a little patience, one generally 
finds oneself comfortably settled, at last, in some one 
of the English or French hotels — or else, as I did, 
in the house of a friend about a mile out of Alex- 
andria, on the very edge of the desert, and sheltered 
by a small grove of palm trees, which threw the 
gently waving shadows of their graceful forms far 



EGYPTIAN CLIMATE. 



13 



along the glowing surface of the sand in the evening 
sun. 

Never shall I forget the first blush of my first 
Egyptian morning. Brightly streamed the sun's 
early rays through those graceful palms that fringe 
the road down into Alexandria : crisp and rosily 
cold was the air, as I sauntered about among the 
prickly pears: and sure am I, that no school boy 
ever, on the first morning of the much-wished-for 
Christmas holidays, felt more contented with him- 
self and everything around him than did I, some 
thousands of miles between me and home, in an 
only partially civilised country, and surrounded by 
a people the like of whom I had never seen before. 
But who could feel otherwise than perfectly happy, 
whilst breathing for the first time such a climate ? 
Adieu for ever, ye English fogs, ye poisonous Lon- 
don smokes! Be this my lot for the rest of this 
life ! . . . . And yet I hardly know ! What can 
be more congenial to an Englishman's mind ? 

Like a bottle of champagne — (the comparison is 
a trite one, but I am forced to use it for want of a 
better) — the act of turning out of bed in Egypt, 
and throwing open your windows, uncorks you ; a 
run among the palms before breakfast leaves you all 
excitement and happiness ; you feel that you must 



14 



EASTERX EXPERIENCES. 



do somethings or else some part of you will break : 
nor do you seem to have the least uneasiness as to 
what that something should be — to turn Mussulman 
and keep a hare em ; to build a pyramid^ or write a 
book on hieroglyphics — you would undertake any- 
things nor doubt your ability for an instant: the 
day wears hot and almost sultry, till noon sees you 
sitting quietly among the divan cushions, a little 
flat, the gas having almost bubbled away : for a few 
hours during the afternoon you are again European, 
the eldest or youngest son, as the case may be, of 
some unaspiring English family ; or, to continue the 
simile, like the empty bottle ; but a ride out into the 
desert at sunset will again send you floating up 
among the stars, dreaming of a score of wives and 
pyramids. 

I was disappointed with Alexandria ; I had fondly 
hoped that I had left Europe behind me at Mar- 
seilles, and that after landing in Egypt I was to 
•commence my residence for the next six months 
among mosque-domes and minarets, whiling away 
the heated hours of the day in long Moorish bazaars, 
hung with silks from Damascus, and richly-coloured 
carpets from the looms of Ispahan, breathing an 
atmosphere laden with the perfumes of otto of roses 
and all manner of spices ; that I was henceforward 



THE ALEXANDRIAN BAZAARS. 15 

to see nothing but painted arabas containing soft- 
eyed ladies in lace veils, eunuchs in red jackets on 
gorgeously caparisoned horses, in charge of the 
hareems of Pashas; that all men were to be dressed 
in turbans and flowing robes, and were ever to be 
seen riding on camels or smoking rose-leaves beneath 
palm trees — all this I had feasted my imagination 
with, and indeed had thought it all very possible at 
the moment of landing, and had looked for the first 
time on turbans and camels. The most that can be 
said for Alexandria is, that it is an inferior conti- 
nental town, its streets peopled with Englishmen, 
Italians, and Greeks, whose wives dress in bonnets 
and Paris mantles, and go out shopping in the after- 
noon in one-horse clarences or pony phaetons. 
Mosques there are, it is true, but being in the 
back streets are unseen, except by the curious in 
such matters ; there are also bazaars, but they are 
far from picturesque, and decidedly dirty. As to 
turbans, I could not but observe a tendency in the 
people to wind cloths round their heads, but it was 
a hard race between them and the wearers of hats. 
I was pleased to see a great many camels, and to 
observe that there were no trees but palms, no 
shrubs but prickly pears, and no plants but orange 
trees and bananas ; but on the whole, I thought 



16 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Alexandria Eastern only in name^ position on the 
map^ and from the fact of its possessing Cleopatra's 
Xeedle and Pompey's Pillar, so I took the earliest 
opportunity of going to Cairo. 

Before I went I was introduced to H. H. Sa'id 
Pasha, now the Viceroy of Egypt, at his palace 
of Gabarra; a solemn and regal half-hour it was 
that we spent in his Highness' presence, among all 
such magnificences as were enjoyed by Allah's most 
favourite caliphs of old — sipping coffee, and ex- 
tracting soft volumes of the sweet Syrian weed from 
diamond-circled lumps of amber. 

Eio;ht hours' steamino; alons^ the Mahmoudieh 
canal brought me to Atfieh, where it flows into the 
Xile, and which I reached just as the sun was 
sinking beneath the horizon of the Libyan desert ; 
and for the first time I witnessed a Nile sunset. 

Silently leaning against the bulwarks of the ves- 
sel, I gazed upon its ever-changing beauties ; and 
when the last roseate tint had melted into a cold 
grey, I turned away with a feeling of regret, yet 
rejoicing in the thought that many more such were in 
store for me, now that, after all my hopes and an- 
ticipations, I was at length fairly afloat on the Nile. 

At Atfieh we were transferred from our Mahmou- 
dieh hulk to one of the Pasha's steamers, but which 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



17 



was a great deal too small for our passenger comple- 
ment. Here we were to pass the night, everybody 
sleeping where he could. Those that were not for- 
tunate in obtaining six feet of sofa, had to put up with 
the floor ; and in this latter and not very enviable 
position I found myself about midnight, with a well- 
crammed knotty carpet-bag for a pillow, after having 
paced the deck since sunset, rejoicing in the silence 
and purity of an Eastern night. However, I was 
about to become a traveller — so I suffered, but 
made light of it. 

This was the eve of the " Doseh," or fete of 
Mahomet ; and steaming rapidly on, we gained 
reach after reach of the broad river, at times ap- 
proaching so near the inland towns, that, borne 
across the water on the soft breezes of the night, 
came the distant buzz of mirth from among their 
illuminated mosques. 

As the next day got on, and when we were within 
a few miles of Cairo — its situation marked by the 
mountains of the Mokattam, which, from a distance, 
seem to overhang it — over the intervening desert I 
caught my first glimpse of the almost everlasting py- 
ramids. So large they loomed through the hazy at- 
mosphere of an African noon, that I fancied they were 

c 



18 



EASTERN EXPEKIEXCES. 



quite close^ yet two full hours elapsed before we 
moored among the acacias at Boulac^ the port of Cairo. 

And now again was I plunged into all the hurry 
and confusion of crowds of people landing at the 
same moment. I listened: and Arabic seemed to 
be the only thing spoken; in fact it assumed the 
form of the one thing needful to one in my po- 
sition. A dozen turbaned athletic men were around 
me^ tendering me^ I doubt not, the kindest offers of 
assistance, to carry me and all my worldly goods 
wherever I chose to direct — I only needed to speak. 
In vain I chinked dollars, and looked rich and 
generous ; they could do nothing for me unless I 
told them what I wanted — and those wants must be 
expressed in Arabic. My kind friends were at 
length gradually dropping off, thinking that nothing 
was to be made out of me, when, pushing himself 
through the crowd, a perfect Pasha of a fellow, 
gloriously apparelled in baggy breeches, an em- 
broidered jacket, and red tarboosh, presented him- 
self, addressing me in about the most powerful 
English I had ever had the pleasure of hearing even 
in my own country. He was, in fact, no other than 
one of that numerous race of men distinguished from 
the rest of the inhabitants of this earth by the sou- 
briquet of Dragomen,'' one of that class to which 



AEKIVAL AT BOULAC- 



19 



belonged Eothen's Dhemetri and Warburton's Mah- 
moud. But of dragomen anon : I shall have plenty 
to say of them, so let me not be premature. Suffice 
it that my friend in the bags transferred me and 
mine, in a twinkling, to Shepherd's Hotel, nor was 
he contented with a little. 

As I have before observed, this was the Birthday 
of Mahomet, and the city was filled with pilgrims, 
the greater part of whom had only this morning 
made their triumphal entry into Cairo, red-hot from 
the shrines of Mecca, surrounded with all the tinsel 
glory of the Mussulman religion, to wit, quantities 
of funny-looking banners, dancing men and dancing 
women, an uproarious rabble in masks with most 
prodigious noses and goggle eyes, all jumping and 
leaping about to the music of a hundred tomtoms. 
From all parts of the Mahommedan world had flocked 
Mussulmen to see, and to participate in, the well- 
known fete of the Doseh." 

Leaving my luggage to look after itself, I mounted 
a donkey, and, hurrying away with the stream, I 
soon found myself at what seemed to be the focus of 
operations. In such a crowd I trust I may never 
again be, an almost tropical sun beating down on 
my head, and half-choked with dust. After waiting 
some little time, every moment adding to the noise, 

C 2 



20 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



dust^ and cliaos around me^ a clear passage was made 
through tlie crowd by some half-dozen keepers of the 
peace^ who^ passing close to the spot where I stood^ 
with long kurbashes, or hippopotamus-hide whips^ 
dealt pain and anguish wherever they went. Close 
on their heels^ and taking advantage of the space 
made for them, came leaping along upwards of a 
hundred frenzied fanatics ; who, literally foaming at 
the mouth, and clapping their hands high over their 
heads, rent the air with the words of their creed^ 
^^AUah, lUah, Allah! Allah hu Akber!" When 
they arrived opposite to where I stood, they paused, 
and then, with one accord, threw themselves with 
their faces on the ground, thus carpeting it for some 
distance with their bodies. The chief durweesh then, 
mounted on a large powerful horse, and preceded by 
a number of men, some bearing brass rods, some 
playing on musical instruments, and some clashing 
small cymbals and beating drums, rode over them, 
the horse seeming to tread nearly always in the 
small of the back. When this was over, and whilst 
some jumped up and ran forward with seeming- 
alacrity, again to prostrate themselves beneath the 
animal's hoofs, others were left on the ground, or in 
the arms of their friends, writhing to all appearance 
with intense pain. I was told that they were merely 
under the influence of Mahomet's spirit, for tli'^.t there 



THE GLASS-DEYOURING DURWEESH. 21 



had never occurred an instance of a man being in the 
least degree hurt at the Doseh." The rest of the 
day is then spent in the Sheikh's house, where^ not 
only do they feast upon the good things of this life, 
but even, maddened with their religion, devour poi- 
sonous serpents, and in some cases go so far as to 
attempt the digesting of plates and glass lamps. 

If I remember right, Mr. Lane, in his book on 
the Modern Egyptians, tells a story of a durweesh, 
who was so religious that he became quite an item 
in the public expenditure: he consumed so much 
glass and crockery promiscuously about, — sometimes 
this man's lamps, and sometimes that man's plates, — 
that it was voted too much of a good thing : so the 
Chancellor of the Egyptian Exchequer sent for him, 
and advising him to have done with religion till his 
fancy for crockery should have died out, bade him 
find sureties for a term of months for respecting 
other people's property. As long as the sureties 
existed the durweesh made a retrograde movement in 
the scale of morality, and lived like other sinners 
upon mutton ; but in course of time the calls of re- 
ligion became too strong, and having once more 
endangered his life by swallowing a coffee-cup, he 
was thrown into prison, there to bewail his too 
devout adherence to the Mussulman creed. 

C 3 



22 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. III. 
CAIRO. 

And now adieu to Europe^ for, being at Cairo, I felt 
myself at length in the East. Among the brilliantly 
attired crowds that streamed all day along the scented 
bazaars, it is true that I met with many hats ; and 
though I often remarked that the long strings of 
sleepy camels were broken by the carriages of 
Europeans, I eschewed the fact of their being 
residents, and regarded them but as visitors like 
myself. 

Among the Alexandrian palms I had but, as it 
were, been reading the preface to the Arabian Xights, 
the words of a man who sitting at home in Europe 
was merely telling me what I Avas about to see ; 
but here among Cairene bazaars I had commenced 
chapter one of the book itself, and I only left the 
dining-room of Shepherd's Hotel the more clearly to 
understand what I was reading about. 

Walking across the Esbekeeyah, a large open 



TURKISH BAZAAR. 



23 



space opposite the hotel, serving as a public garden, 
filled with leafy acacias which shelter numberless 
cofFee-shops, I strolled through the mosque or Frank 
bazaar ; then diving deeper still into the atmosphere 
of Oriental romance, I mingled with the turbaned 
throng that filled the Turkish bazaar. 

Seated quietly on the divan of a seller of fine 
stuffs, smoking his best pipe and sipping the coffee 
with which he supplied me, I chatted and bargained 
for nearly an hour in the most perfect state of hap- 
piness, complacently watching the gay crowd that 
was ever streaming this way and that way beneath 
me. Allowing my imagination full play, I saw 
caliphs in disguise, listening to the conversation of 
their innocent subjects ; took particular note of the 
whole intrigue going on over the way, between 
Schemselnihar and the Prince of Persia, assisted by 
the jeweller and the female slave; whilst in the next 
house to where I was sitting, a coffee-house, on one 
of the divans, sat a second Sinbad, relating to an 
admiring audience some of his most wonderful ad- 
ventures. 

Though the crowd was intense, I issued from it 
without the least impression being left on my mind 
of hurry or excitement ; and, by the time I reached 
my hotel, my thoughts had so far glided away from 

c 4 



24 



EASTEEX EXPERIEXCES. 



real^ and had so mixed themselves up with what^ till 
now, I had considered as ideal life, that it was with 
great difficultv, and excessive disgust, that I could 
persuade myself I had ever ridden on the ^^knife- 
board of an omnibus. 

A European's first ambition on arri^dng in Cairo, 
after having smoked a chibouque and engaged a dra- 
goman, is to dare all the terrors of Mussulman 
fanaticism by entering a mosque, and with this fancy 
I woke one morning ; so, engaging the services of a 
kawass from the British Consulate, I set forth on my 
voyage of curiosity. The kawass that attended me 
Avas an armed functionary — two or three of whom 
are attached to every Consulate, and are authorised 
by the Egyptian Government to enforce all orders 
issuing therefrom. "When * a European wishes to 
visit a mosque, he applies to his Consul to be pro- 
vided with one of these terrible ones," and who, as 
the custom is, answers for the traveller's life with 
his own head. I visited one or two in peace and 
quietness, no one paying much attention beyond 
just pausing in his prostrations to look at Ine as I 
passed along. I confess I was a little disappointed 
in them. I had pictured myself wandering about in 
superb halls, supported by lofty columns, carpeted 
with the richest stuffs from the looms of Stamboul or 



DESCKIPTION OF THE MOSQUES. 25 

of Persia; the most perfect silence^ enhanced by 
some solitary repeater of the Koran, or the occasional 
plash of a fountain. Their great interest seems 
mainly to consist in their antiquity ; so having 
divested myself of my boots at the outer door, I 
pattered about on the cold stone, and sometimes, for 
a change, on old faded prayer-carpets, or long strips 
of matting. The ceilings, which must have been 
exquisite many hundred years ago, were now fast 
decaying — the rich blue, which might once have 
tempted the worshipping Moslem to fancy he was 
prostrating himself suh Jove^ seemed now to be 
almost washed out; and the golden sentences from 
the Koran, with which the walls were covered, were 
scarcely legible. Instead of that silence which I had 
hoped to find, noisy groups of boys were playing 
Egyptian games among the columns ; whilst in the 
fountains, with the rise and fall of which the whole 
place resounded, the dirtiest of Arabs were washing 
the dirtiest of feet, preparatory to their devotions. 

Towards the El-Azhar (which is the largest and 
most rigid mosque in Cairo, and which really does 
attain to some of the glories I had dreamed of in 
those already visited) I now turned my steps, 
beneath the shadow of my warlike attendant, the 
kawass. In general^ there is no great difficulty in 



26 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



seeing tliis mosque : an order from the Government 
smooths every difficulty^ and Franks^ without 
number^ for months in succession^ visit every part of 
it with impunity : but sometimes a sudden fit of 
sulkiness comes over the people, as who should say^ 
This will not do we have seen our temples de- 
secrated quite often enough ; " and on the very next 
unfortunate Christian that darkens the gateway they 
vent their hoarded spleen. 

Threading my way along the narrow and crowded 
streets, I arrived, in due time, at the entrance of the 
El-Azliar. Bidding me await his return, the while 
he went in search of the Sheikh, my kawass left me; 
and, slipping off his shoes, was soon lost to view 
among the gaily-dressed crowds, streaming constantly 
in and out of the mosque. 

It was soon noised abroad that a Frank was waiting 
for admittance into the El-Azhar : and a disagreeable- 
looking rabble began to collect about me. Separated 
from my protector, I began to feel a little anxious. 
It was useless to look as if I did not care; — 
wherever I turned I encountered fierce eyes, and 
contemptuously curled mouths, whilst from all 
quarters broke upon me the national curse, Ya 
Nazarani I ya kelb bowani I *' (O, thou howling dog 
of a Christian !) 



EL-AZHAR MOSQUE. 



27 



I was seriously meditating change of air in 
another street, when, elbowing his way through 
the crowd, the kawass suddenly appeared closely 
followed by the Sheikh of the mosque, a holy 
Shereef, a green-turbaned descendant of Maho- 
met. Instead of becoming quiet, the people now 
got more violent, and orange-peel and banana- 
rind began to fly. The Sheikh, who had an eye to 
a buchsheesliy wished to admit me, and, accordingly, 
displayed the Government order; but the voice of 
the crowd was loud and unanimous, — "I was to 
return whence I came." At last, seeing it was all 
to no purpose, the kawass advised me to beat a 
retreat, which I instantly did, in the most honourable 
way that existing circumstances would permit. 

Christmas Day spent beneath a tropica^l sun, the 
hot air of noon scarce cooled by the waving and 
bending of many palms, caused quite a revulsion in 
the hitherto pleasant flow of my thoughts. Hitherto 
I had been unconscious of a loose screw anywhere : 
I had smoked my pipe on the verandah with the 
utmost content ; I had taken to linen trowsers ; had 
abjured waistcoats and neckerchiefs ; in fact, I had 
almost forgotten that it was December. Imagine 
then my astonishment, when I was greeted one 
morning by his Prussian Majesty's Consul, of whose 



28 



EASTERN EXPEHIENCES. 



hospitality I was then partaking, with, A merry 
Christmas to you." My first impulse was to ask him 
to wait one minute, whilst I ran and put on my 
great coat, my present train of thought and mode of 
dress quite unfitting me to answer such a salutation. 
And so it really Avas Christmas Day ! For the first 
time I felt what a wide gap there lay between me 
and England; and I passed the whole day in a 
sort of struggle with myself, trying to feel cold 
and happy. Sunset came at last and saw me sit- 
ting on the house-top, on a level with the tall palms, 
smoking my chibouque, and sipping coffee from a 
china fingan. 

Whilst I was watching the sun go down behind 
the pyramids, and listening, as the moon got up 
throwing a flood of silver light among a thousand 
Cairene mosques, to the monotonous cry of the 
mueddin as it floated from minaret to minaret in- 
viting the Moslem world to evening prayer, friends 
in England were hurrying, in the early twilight of 
winter, from country walks, or perhaps from after- 
noon service in our chiuxhes, their appetites 
sharpened for those dinners or their spirits brightened 
by the prospect of those domestic carousals which 
are the peculiar property of Christmas, and which 
crimson curtains shrouding dining-room windows illu- 
minated by blazing fires within so cheerfully tell of. 



CHUISTMAS IN CAIRO. 



29 



Had I not been a participator in these little home 
romances, I make no doubt that I should have found 
Cairo a very tolerable sort of place in which to have 
spent my Christmas : as it was, I certainly did not, 
but it was partly my own fault. Remembering that 
I was an Englishman, the Prussian Consul (may he 
be rewarded for it !) whose heart at all times over- 
flowed with kindness, came down on the previous 
evening to search me out at my hotel, and invite me 
to eat my Christmas dinner with him; but as he un- 
fortunately omitted to mention the hour, I did not 
make my appearance till after dark, when I found, to 
my shame and confusion, that I had kept my host 
with his hands washed and all ready to begin, waiting 
for me since one o'clock, at which hour the roast 
turkey, bedecked with a few leaves of the castor oil 
plant to imitate holly, had been placed on the table 
with all the eclat which a footman in a blue robe and 
turban was capable of, so that not only I, but my 
friend also, who, but for me might have rejoiced in 
an excellent dinner, had to sit down to a turkey 
which was once hot, but was now cold. The evening 
which was as chilly as the day was sultry we spent 
buttoned up in our great-coats in the corner of the 
divan (fire-places are curiosities in Cairo), smoking 
fast and fiercely to keep the cold air out. 



30 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



The highest point in Cairo is the citadel, which, 
crowning the summit of a massive stone cliff, can 
not only peer down into every nook and corner of 
the great city, but looks far away out into the desert 
across the white waters of the broad Xile, as it 
sweeps along with its fleet of grain boats down 
towards the Mediterranean. Immediately beyond 
the city walls, the eye ranges eastwards over the 
vast expanse of desert, through an atmosphere so 
clear and brilliant that, if the earth was only flat, 
one could almost count the minarets in Jerusalem, 
whilst from the different gates can be seen the com- 
mencement of those roads which lead across the 
trackless sands to Damascus, Bagdad the capital of 
Persia, and to India. 

Within the walls of the citadel is the palace where 
Mahommed Ali dwelt, and from the windows of 
which he could look down into that city he so loved, 
and watch his subjects as they thronged along the 
narrow streets, meeting and passing, crossing, re- 
crossing, and jostling each other, as they busied 
themselves, like ants in a nest, about their daily 
occupations. From among the swelling mosque- 
domes shoot up countless minarets, their tapering 
summits losing themselves in a flood of sunlight; 
but rivet your attention as you may upon the 



TISW FROM THE CITADEL. 



31 



crowded city, — absorbing as is tbe thought that roads 
commence from the walls on your right, which 
could lead you, with scarce a deviation, into the 
heart of Persia, — your eye rests last and longest upon 
the great pyramids ; conscious as you are of the fact 
that there they are, and have been, and still are to be 
seemingly within reach of your hand, should you 
choose to stretch it out, you have been, as it were, 
carrying on a flirtation with them, devoting your 
attention to the city beneath, and thoughts of dis- 
tant India ; at times even to your own person, the 
shape of your boots or the marking of your pocket- 
handkerchief — but all the time you have been look- 
ing at the pyramids through the corners of your 
eyes, till at last your love for them can hide itself 
no longer ; and whilst the sun sinks crimsoning in 
the West, warning you away before night overtake 
you, you turn boldly round and satiate yourself 
with one long last look. 

From the spot where you stand on the citadel, 
they are nine miles, as the crow flies, away on the 
further side of the Nile. 

It would take a great many buildings as large as 
St. Paul's, all rolled into one, to assume at all an 
imposing form at a distance of nine miles to any 
one standing in the churchyard at Harrow; so that 



32 



EASTEKN EXPEDIENCES. 



some notion of the massive grandeur of the Great 
Pyramid may be formed when I say that^ from the 
citadel at Cairo^ you can almost mark the steps by 
which the traveller mounts to the summit. As you 
look along the road which leads from the river side 
across the intervening plain^ men, boats, houses, and 
trees become less and less, till they lose all form in 
distance ; and in that distance your eye rests upon 
the pyramids, then- gigantic forms standing out in 
bold relief against the formlessness by which they 
are surrounded. A great favourite of the public, 
when speaking of the pyramids, says, "they are 
quite of this world." Now, though it would be a 
consummate piece of daring to assert that such sub- 
stantial realities are merely celestial types of the 
grandeur of a dead nation, yet that first and distant 
view that I had of them from the citadel of Cairo 
for ever after invested them in my mind with a 
majesty that I could not associate with anything 
worldly. 



SHOPPING IN CAIRO. 



33 



CHAP. IV. 

CAIRENE BAZAARS. 

Shopping in Cairo and shopping in London are 
similar operations in the abstract notion only^ viz.^ 
that of going out to purchase many different things 
at many different shops ; but the details are as widely 
different as summer from winter. 

In England, if a lady wishes to buy a yard of 
ribbon or a pair of gloves, she is able, as she ties her 
bonnet-strings before her mirror, to calculate, within 
a halfpenny or so, the money she is about to spend, 
and to fill her purse accordingly: but the case is 
very different in Cairo ; in the first place, the pur- 
chasing anything is so arduous and tedious an under- 
taking as to be quite beyond the patience, I had 
almost said the abilities^ of the fair sex, so that men 
have to accomplish as a dire necessity, what to ladies 
in England forms the all-engrossing pleasure of their 
week-day lives. 

Conscious of the difficulties of shopping, a gentle- 
man in Cairo never buys anything that he can do 
w^ithout; but supposing him to be absolutely in want 

D 



34 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



of some necessary of life^ he takes with him more 
money than any^ even a Cairene, tradesman would 
feel justified in asking for the article he is about to 
purchase^ and sallies out into the bazaars. 

All the shops in Oriental cities are collected into 
a series of bazaars^ — for the most part picturesque 
arcades^ roofed over to screen the merchants from the 
sun^ and which^ branching into and off from one 
another, constitute sometimes, as in Damascus, the 
entu-e city. Each bazaar is set apart for the sale of 
one class of commodity : thus^ in bazaar No. 1, sit 
the sellers of drugs and perfumes; in Hso. 2. the 
sellers of silks and stuffs; in Xo. 3. the sellers of 
carpets; as in London, Long Acre is devoted to 
carriage builders, and Paternoster Kow to booksellers. 
Our friend, with his pocket full of piastres, deter- 
mines to invest in a mutton-chop for his daily meal; 
so he directs his steps to the bazaar where sit the 
sellers of meat. The moment he enters, each 
bearded Moslem butcher, divining his intention, 
commences to chant in a loud voice the merits of 
the numerous uncooked delicacies over which he 
presides. Pausing before one of the stalls, our friend 
states his wish to purchase a mutton-chop. The fact 
that in almost all parts of the known world a mutton- 
chop commands within a few fractions of a penny 



THE MUSSULMAN BUTCHER. 



35 



the same price^ does not at all deter the Mussulman 
tradesman from first holding it up to the light to 
show off its points^ and then asking five times its 
value. Our friend^ who is expecting this attempt at 
cheating, is not so angry as might be conceived, 
though he certainly does pull his hair and threaten 
to take the butcher before the Cadi : in order to be 
even with him he flies to the other extreme, and 
offers for the cutlet five times less than its value* 
This of course makes the butcher very angry, and 
moves him to seize his beard and remove his turban in 
a very violent manner. To make a long story short, 
the mutton-chop is at length disposed of, but whether 
for more or less than its real value is determined by 
the superior cunning of the parties engaged. 

To take an instance of my own experiences in 
shopping : I remember that when fitting out my boat 
for a two months' cruise on the Nile, I went one 
morning to buy in a stock of crockery; and, following 
the guidance of my Dragoman, I entered, as he said, 
the cheapest shop in Cairo — or rather, a shop where 
such a broad limit is put on to the price of everything, 
that bargaining and beating down may be carried on 
to an almost unlimited extent. Seating myself on 
the proprietor's divan, and accommodated with his own 
pipe, I prepared myself to watch the proceedings 

D 2 



36 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



going on below me. First of all^ Ibrahim^ as if the 
whole shop was his own and everything in it^ gathered 
together a vast heap of all that he said we should 
want^ then squatting himself on his haunches, he 
blew three or four furious clouds from his pipe, and 
informed me that he was going to make the price. 
I wanted to offer so much down for the lot, and so 
cut both the matter and the expense short; but this 
he would not allow. The business then commenced. 
Taking a soup-plate, worth a few pence, in his hand, 
Ibrahim held it at arm's length, and looking at it 
with a contemptuous smile, seemed as if doubtful 
whether he should pitch it into the street, or make 
an offer for it. Deciding on the latter course, he 
asked, How much ? " There was a pause for about 
a minute, like the lull that intervenes between the 
lightning-flash and the thunder- clap, and then the 
words Ashereen queersh " (one dollar) slipped 
quietly from the lips of the vendor of crockery. 
Tearing his tarboosh and white cap from his head, 
Ibrahim flung them on the ground, and then, stretch- 
ing out both his hands, he began to shower down a 
torrent of abuse on the head of the unfortunate 
proprietor, who sat calmly smoking, without appear- 
ing to take any notice. The storm at length sub- 
siding, Ibrahim ventured again to refer to the object 



IBRAHIM AND THE VENDOR OF CROCKERY. 37 

of dissension: then came another burst of rage, not 
quite so fierce as the last, and this time the proprietor 
attempted to expostulate; and thus matters continued 
for the next half-hour, with this exception, that at 
every fresh outbreak Ibrahim got more gentle, whilst 
the proprietor got more exasperated ; till at last all 
was settled, the plate being handed over to me for 
two piastres instead of twenty. Ibrahim then looked 
up to me, and said, " You see, sir, when I make little 
quarrel?" On assuring him, that I could not but 
have seen it, he said, " This because I make the good 
price." 

This wild and indefinite mode of carrying on a 
retail business in a place like Cairo is the more sur- 
prising, as I do not suppose there is another city in 
the world where men convicted of using light weights 
or any other species of chicanery are punished so 
severely ; I can only suppose that fraud is so 
essentially the property of every Mussulman shop- 
keeper, that he can only be convinced of the error 
of his ways by being brought, for all delinquences 
of the kind, within reach of the hangman's noose. 
Whoever has read Mr. Lane's Modern Egyptians" 
will remember the numerous instances which he gives 
of fraud being punished often with death by decapi- 
tation or strangling, but always with the utmost 

D 3 



38 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



severity; and how that a baker for using light weights 
Avas sentenced to have a hole bored through his nose^ 
and a cake of breads about a span wide and a finger's 
breadth in thickness, to be suspended to It by a piece 
of string; and that, entirely naked, with the exception 
of a piece of linen about his loins, he was to be tied 
to the window-bars of a mosque in *the main street 
of the city, exposed beneath a scorching sun to the 
gaze of the multitude. Mr. Lane tells one anecdote, 
which is so illustrative of the Egyptian method of 
administering justice, that I cannot refrain from 
quoting it: — 

" A poor man applied one day to the A^gha, or 
Superintendent, of police, and said, ^ Sir, there came 
to me to-day a woman, and she said to me, Take this 
kurs (or head-dress), and let it remain in your 
possession for a time, and lend me five hundred 
piastres " (about five pounds) ; and I took it from her, 
sir, and gave her the five hundred piastres, and she 
went away : and when she was gone away I said to 
myself, Let me look at this kurs," and I looked at 
it, and behold it was yellow brass ; and I slapped 
my face, and said, " I will go to the A^gha, and relate 
my story to him, perhaps he will investigate the 
affair, and clear it up ; " for there is none that can 
help me in this matter but thou.' And the A'gha 



CAIRENE JUSTICE. 



39 



said to him, ^ Hear what I tell thee; man : take what- 
ever is in thy shop ; leave nothing, and lock it up ; 
and to morrow morning, go early, and when thou 
hast opened the shop, cry out Alas for my pro- 
perty ! " Then take in thy hand two clods, and beat 
thyself with them and cry Alas for the property of 
others." And whoever says to thee, What is the 
matter with thee?" do thou answer ^^The property of 
others is lost : a pledge that I had, belonging to a 
woman, is lost ; if it were my own I should not 
thus lament it ; " and this will clear up the affair.' 

The man promised to do as he was desired. He 
removed everything from his shop; and early the 
next morning he went and opened it, and began to 
cry out, ^ Alas for the property of others ! ' And he 
took two clods and beat himself with them, and went 
about every district of the city, crying, ^ Alas for 
the property of others ! A pledge that I had, belong- 
ing to a woman, is lost ; if it were my own I should 
not thus lament it.' The woman who had given 
him the kurs in pledge, heard of this; and discovered 
that it was the man whom she had cheated ; so she 
said to herself, ^ Go and bring an action against 
him.' She went to his shop, riding on an ass, to 
give herself consequence, and said to him, * Man 
give me my property that is in thy possession.' He 

D 4 



40 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES, 



answered, ^ It is lost.' ^ Thy tongue be cut out!' 
she cried ; ^dost thou lose my property ? By Allah ! 
I will go to the A^gha and inform him of it.' ^ Go,' 
said he; and she went and told her case. The 
A^gha sent for the man; and when he had come, 
said to his accuser, ^ What is thy property in his 
possession ? ' She answered ^ A kurs of red Vene- 
tian gold.' ^ Woman,' said the A^gha, have a 
gold kurs here, I should like to show it to thee.' 
She said ^ Show it me, sir, for I shall know my 
kurs.' The A^gha then untied the handkerchief, 
and taking out of it the kurs which she had given in 
pledge, said, ^ Look.' She looked at it, and knew 
it, and hung down her head. The A^gha said, 
^ Raise thy head, and say where are the five hundred 
piastres of this man.' She answered, ^ Sir they are 
in my house.' The executioner was sent with her 
to her house, but without his sword; and the woman 
having gone into her house, brought out a purse 
containing the money, and went back with him. 
The money was given back to the man from whom 
it had been obtained ; and the executioner was then 
ordered to take the woman to the Rumeyleh (a large 
open space below the citadel), and there to behead 
her : which he did." 

This is only one of Mr, Lane's numerous anecdotes. 



MY dragoman's story. 



41 



but I select it as being a peculiarly happy specimen, 
both of the^ode of Cairene administration of justice 
and also of their manner of addressing one another. 
In this case it would seem that both being poor 
persons, from whom the Cadi had no hope of obtain- 
ing bribes, he was induced to pronounce an un- 
biassed sentence on the side of simple equity ; but it 
too often happens that the Cadi is so miserably given 
to the love of money, that for the sake of a few dol- 
lars he will see justice at the deuce, and pronounce 
sentence in favour of the longest purse. I remember 
that nearly three months subsequent to the time of 
which I am now writing, and when I was on the 
point of starting across the desert for Jerusalem, the 
dragoman, for whose services I was then paying, and 
who used to come every morning to see if I wanted 
him, failed to make his appearance for three succes- 
sive days ; but on the fourth day he came as usual, 
and, to account for his absence, said that he had 
been in prison. On my asking for all particulars, he 
said : "In the next house to where I live, sir, at the 
back of the mosque, dwells a seller of kebabs (a cook- 
shop), by name Mustapha; all Cairo knows this 
man very well, sir, that he is a bad man. About a 
month ago, his business increasing, he began to pull 
down his shop in order to make it larger. As it was 



42 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



no affair of mine, I said nothing, until the other day 
I saw that he had wrenched away the framework of 
his own house so violently, that mine began to totter, 
and I was afraid that it would end in falling down 
altogether. So I went to Mustapha, and said, ^ O 
Mustapha, we are neighbours, therefore do not 
let us quarrel; but if you do not place supports 
against my house it will fall down, and I shall bring 
an action against you.' At these words Mustapha 
seized both his ears in a rage, and, cursing me, told 
me I mio:ht brino; an action ao-ainst him, for that he 
would not place any supports to keep my house 
from falling. 

So I went home ; and when I had put on my 
newest clothes and had had my dinner, I took my 
purse in my pocket and went to the Cadi, and, 
making my complaint, I gave him a dollar, and then 
demanded justice. So the Cadi, when he had con- 
sidered the case and looked at the dollar, said that 
it was not enough, but that if I felt disposed to give 
him another I might go home and consider the 
affair settled : so I gave him another dollar and 
went home. After a few days had passed, and 
still my house was in the same state, I began to fear 
that the Cadi had forgotten it ; so I went to him 
again, and, receiving me with an angry countenance, 



THE BUCKSHEESH-LOVING CADI, 43 



he said I was a rascal. On asking the servants if 
anything had happened^ they said that the Cadi had 
sent for Mnstapha^ who^ giving him four dollars, had 
been allowed to go away. When I heard this I 
went back to the Cadi ; and apologising for having 
expected justice for only two dollars, I gave him four 
more^ and left him promising to settle my affair. The 
next morning I heard that Mustapha had been sent 
for again ; and following him as quickly as I could, I 
learned to my dismay that he had given the Cadi 
another present, larger than mine ; so that now, unless 
I gave him some more money, which, being a poor 
man, I could not afford, my house would fall down ; 
and it did fall. In my misfortunes my creditors 
came upon me ; and having given away all my ready 
money, I was thrown into prison. All my friends, 
hearing of this, went to the Cadi, and giving him 
more dollars than Mustapha could, and having lent 
me the money to pay my debts, I was let out of 
prison; and at last Mustapha has been obliged to 
build up the wall of my house." 



44 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. V. 

THE HAREEM. 

I SUPPOSE there are very few persons who would 
not willingly confess to having gathered their first 
impressions of Eastern life from the Arabian Nights ; 
yet are there many who^ after this confession, would 
go on to say that, having passed out of credulous child- 
hood, they looked upon those thousand and one tales 
as so much nursery nonsense, pretty enough, but far 
too absurd to be anywhere near the confines of truth, 
and who, receiving letters from travelling relations 
resident for a time in Cairo or Damascus, which 
smacked of eunuchs, jewellers, and female slaves, 
would accuse those relations, not only of drawing too 
long a bow, but of downright falsehood. 

It is to these persons that I would now especially 
address myself: and first of all admitting frankly 
that, since the days of Haroun-el-Easheed, all species 
of Genii, whether good or bad, have ceased to exist, at 
any rate visibly; that no longer are churchyard 
corpses subject to be teazed by midnight ghoules, 
nor are the bowels of mother earth in a position 



ORIENTAL ROMANCE. 



45 



again to yield up countless hoards of wealth to any- 
second Aladdin^ even should he come provided with 
a fac-simile of the wonderful lamp^~I assert that 
the bazaars of Cairo and Damascus still retain^ with- 
out alloy^ that rich vein of poetry and romance 
which looks you in the face from out every page of 
the Arabian Nights. 

You have but to live a week in Cairo, to find that 
it is the old, old story. The Cairenes are as far off 
editing a newspaper to-day as they were during the 
Caliphate. The annals of every hareem abound in 
their tales of horror; and you rise in the morn- 
ing to learn that last night poor Fatmeh paid 
the penalty of possessing a heart capable of loving 
too many in the cold waters of the Nile. Officers 
of justice parade along the streets when business is 
at its height, the insignia of their office borne before 
them in the shape of a pair of scales ; nor do they 
hesitate to inflict the bastinado unsparingly there 
and then, upon all who shall be found wanting. Still 
do the Cairenes, as in the days of yore, love to fre- 
quent the cofifee-shops, and to listen by the hour, with 
half-shut eyes, to the professional story-tellers, who, 
if you could only understand them, would be heard 
painting, with all the fervour of which an Eastern is 
capable, the adventures of one of the three Calenders 



46 



EASTEKX EXPEKIEXCES. 



or the loves of Camaralzaman and the princess 
Badoura. During my short visit there occurred at 
Cairo an incident vrhich might have found itself a 
place among any of the Sultana's tales, and all the 
circumstances of which might be condensed into the 
following narrative : — 

The mother of the Sultan, according to the annual 
custom at Constantinople, had presented her son 
with a young Circassian girl of such extraordinary 
beauty, that his Majesty, wishing to bestow a mark 
of his love upon the Egyptian viceroy, sent her to 
Cairo to grace the hareem of Abbas Pasha. 

Hardly had it got wind that this gem from 
Stamboul was on its way across the waters of the 
Levant, when it was whispered in the Cairene coffee- 
shops that the rose from Circassia was abeady 
blooming behind the jalousies of the vice-regal 
hareem. Many were the prayers that harm should 
ever be far from a thing so lovely; and many were 
the jiussulmen who damped their foreheads with 
moisture from their lips, lest, in passing beneath her 
windows, they should envy the Pasha's happiness, 
and so bring the Circassian rose under the influence 
of the evil eye.* 

* It is supposed that the saliva is an antidote whereby the 
elfeets of the evil eye are counteracted. 



THE CIKCASSIAN SLAVE GIRL. 



47 



A few weeks passed away, when it was reported 
in the city that the beautiful slave-girl Lulu, or the 
pearl, was confined in the women's prison on the 
citadel, and endless were the conjectures as to what 
she had been guilty of. While the bazaars were still 
teeming with stories of an attempt to murder her 
lord, an intrigue with one of the Egyptian Beys, or 
a wish to escape altogether from the bars of her cage, 
the Cairene gossips were thunderstruck by a hear- 
say that she had been seen going into the house of a 
Levantine Greek in the Frank quarter. Lulu's 
adventures were just at this point, when, coming out 
of the Prussian Consulate one morning, I encountered 
such a crowd in the narrow street which led into the 
mosque, that I was compelled to come to a stop. On 
asking what it meant, I was told that the Circassian 
slave was known to be in the house opposite, a^d 
that the soldiers had gone in to take her. 

So at last I was to see the famous Lulu; and I 
waited all expectation for the denouement of the next 
few minutes. Presently some one was heard descend- 
ing the stairs : in common with the crowd I pressed 
forward to see her, when, to my disappointment, it 
proved to be merely a young foppishly dressed 
Levantine, supposed to be the owner of the house, 
who, informing us in an affected voice that Lulu 



48 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



had escaped along the house-tops down into the 
next street^ mingled with the crowd for a moment, 
and then disappeared. That young Greek I after- 
wards learned was Lulu herself. The soldiers pre- 
sently returned; and confirming Lulu's own account 
of her escape from the housetop, the crowd quickly 
dispersed. 

A few days after Lulu's arrival in Egypt and her 
introduction to the Pasha's hareem, it seems that the 
viceroy proposed that she should become the pro- 
perty of one of his favourite Beys, who, barring the 
fact of being a brave and clever man, was in every 
respect a brute, and a man much disliked by every 
one except the Pasha. At this proposition Lulu fell 
on her knees, and, embracing those of the Pasha, 
entreated not to be dismissed the royal hareem. 
When she found that tears availed her not, she rose, 
and, taking the knife which she wore in her girdle, 
swore by the veil of the prophet that she would die, 
rather than endure the endearments of the Bey. 
That same evening she was confined in the citadel, 
whence a few days afterwards she contrived, to the 
astonishment of the city, to elude the vigilance of 
the eunuchs, and to make her escape in a man's dress. 
For some weeks Cairo was in a continued state of 
suspense as to her fate ; the Pasha's soldiers sought 



THE WOMENS' PRISON. 



49 



her in every quarter of the city ; and had not the 
voice of the people been for her, poor Lulu would 
have been caught at the very commencement of her 
adventures. As it was, each day provided the 
coffee-shops with some new tale; now here, now 
there ; one day recognised in the garb of a Bedouin, 
another day in that of an Arnaoot ; sometimes the 
El-Azhar mosque was beset by a crowd anxiously 
expecting to see her brought forth by the Pasha's 
hounds, who were searching for her within ; and the 
next hour it was reported that she was concealed 
among the numerous galleries of Shepherd's hotel. 

Never," exclaimed all the English residents, since 
the days of Spring-heeled Jack, has mortal been 
capable of such ubiquity ! " 

The end of poor Lulu was never known. She was 
taken at last ; but whether she sleeps in the Nile, or 
dwells once more in the hareem of the viceroy, the 
Cairenes say not, and the coffee-shops have ceased to 
talk about her. 

The women's prison on the citadel, whence Lulu 
made her escape, could yield, I suppose, as many 
tales of interest as Mr. Harrison Ainsworth has 
proved the Tower of London capable of, and many 
of which, through the kindness of a friend, who had 
been a resident in Cairo during the latter period of 

E 



50 



EASTEKN EXPEEIEXCES. 



Mahommecl All's eventful reign, and who vouched 
to me for their truth, I was made the possessor. 
But as they are so numerous, and I intend the 
present volume to be an account of my tour in the 
East, and not a series of stories, I must confine 
myself to the narration of the following, as being 
perhaps one of the most interesting, assuring my 
readers that it is but a single leaf from a book that 
might be written upon such a subject. 

Some years ago now there dwelt in Cairo an old 
man of high standing amongst the most ancient of 
the Cairene families, possessed of great wealth both 
in money and lands, and w^ho, during his lifetime, had 
filled the highest offices in the state. From among 
the flowers of his hareem he had chosen the most 
perfect in years gone by to be his beloved and only 
wife, and from whom in the course of time were 
born to him two children, a son and daughter. 

Whilst yet in their first childhood, Selim and 
Naba were pronounced by all who saw them at 
play on the soft divans of the paternal hareem, indeed 
lovely children; but as they passed through the 
several stages of infancy their separate characters 
developed themselves into the opposite extremes. 
Selim passed from a pretty wayward child into a 
headstrong passionate boy, greedy of wealth and 



STOEY OF NABA. 



51 



position, and careless how he obtained them ; whilst 
Naba, on the other hand, bubbled up, as her name 
imports, from a mere drop of the clearest water 
into a bright dancing rivulet; her extreme beauty 
equalled only by her womanly gentleness and the 
purity of her loving heart. 

The Nile had overflowed its banks but fourteen 
times since Naba's birth, when she was betrothed 
and married, and the old man died. Whilst in life, 
she had ever been the favourite, and at his death 
she inherited more than was, perhaps, her due of 
those lands and that wealth which had been her 
father's. Inflamed with anger at what he considered 
an insult levelled at an only son, Selim vowed 
vengeance against his gentle, unoffending sister ; but 
willingly as that sister would have given up all her 
wealth to appease the brother she could not but love, 
and which at her death would, according to the 
wording of the will, devolve upon him, it was not in 
her power to do so : she was the property of another, 
and whilst she lived her money went to support 
that state which her husband's position obliged him 
to keep. 

Again the Nile rose and fell for two successive 
seasons, when Naba had become a mother and her 
lord was sent upon a mission to the Porte. 

E 2 



52 



EASTEEN EXPERIEXCES. 



If in England young Tvives weep at parting for a 
time from tliose for wliom they have sacrificed so 
much, even so did Xaba shed tears and hang upon 
the last kiss of her husband, when he left her to 
encounter the dangers of the stormy Levant. 

In the innermost recesses of the hareem she 
whiled away the hot hom's of the Cairene noons, 
rejoicing in her child, and praying Allah soon to 
restore her absent love. 

But whilst Xaba thus innocently passed away her 
time, Sehm was busy to bring about her ruin. In 
full divan he charged his sister with unfaithfulness 
to her lord. The accusation was scouted ; but Selim 
was rich, and with an unsparing hand he lavished 
his dollars to so certain an end that, witnesses being 
suborned, poor Kaba was apprehended and thrown 
into the women's prison on the citadel. 

So surely did Selim add perjury to perjury, and 
at length prove his damnable charge, that sentence 
of death was passed upon the innocent object of his 
malice, though unknown to her. 

Driven almost to madness, the young wife lin- 
gered out three weeks in a state of the most terrible 
suspense, asserting her purity and imploring Allah 
to give her back her only love. It is said that . 
during the silent hours of the night the wretched 



WHAT THE ITALIAN DRUGGIST SAW. 53 



girl could be heard shrieking her prayers through 
the bars of her prison windows^ by people in the city 
below* 

The ending of the story I give in the words of an 
eye-witness, an Italian, who, filling the office of chief 
druggist to the Pasha, occupied rooms on the citadel 
adjoining the women's prison. 

" Often had I lain awake at night, rendered 
sleepless by the melancholy meanings and not un- 
frequently the long piercing screams of the unhappy 
Naba ; and when I did close my eyes in sleep, dead- 
ened by the massive wall between us, they mingled 
themselves in my dreams ; so that, whether waking or 
sleeping, the remembrance of the poor girl was ever 
with me. 

I had been asleep one night for some hours, 
when I was awoke by the sound of many voices in 
the court-yard below, among which I could dis- 
tinguish Naba's. My room being illuminated by 
reason of persons constantly passing and repassing 
with lights under my windows, I rose, and, pulling 
aside the curtains, was made witness to a scene 
which I shall never forget whilst I live. Before the 
gloomy gateway of the prison was collected a small 
crowd of soldiers, some of them armed with torches, 
which, throwing a lurid glare upon those immediately 

E 3 



54 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



around them, left all beyond buried in darkness the 
most profound. In the centre of the group stood the 
unfortunate Naba, the mere wreck of the lovely- 
creature she had been, beside a mule, which the 
chief eunuch was persuading her to mount. In vain 
they strove to cheat her into the idea that they were 
going to take her to her husband, who they said had 
just arrived and was asking for her. The picture of 
misery, the poor girl, with her hands clasped over 
her eyes that she might not see the dreaded soldiers, 
refused to believe them. ^ Why do you come in the 
middle of the night?' she cried. ^ If my husband 
had returned he would come himself at noonday and 
take me home again : but ah, no ! I see it all ; you 
are going to kill me, and when he doeg come and ask 
for me he will be told that Naba was unfaithful, and 
that she is sleeping in the Nile.' 

Still weeping and wringing her hands, she was 
at last forced upon the mule's back, whilst the 
soldiers crowding round hurried her away, and the 
court-yard of the citadel was left in darkness. 

Like one in a trance I still stood at the window, 
following with my eyes the little procession as it 
wound down the hill-side. For a time I lost it ; and 
when I again caught sight of the torches, they were 
hurrying along the narrow streets of the city, at an 



naba's death. 



55 



immense depth below. Still I stood and watched them, 
constantly lost among the intervening houses, and 
then again appearing for an instant, but each time 
nearer to the river. The last glimpse I caught of them 
was quite in the far distance among the shipping at 
Old Cairo, and all doubt as to Naba's fate was done 
away with." 

The next morning the bazaars were in possession 
of the sad tale. Some Arab fellahs arriving during 
the night from the upper country, had come into the 
city at sunrise, and reported to having heard the 
cries of some poor girl as she was forced into a bag, 
and immediately afterwards the heavy plunge, which 
told that all was over. 

And this is too often the fate of the Cairene girls. 
From their cradles they are taught to look forward 
to their hareem life as the consummation of all 
earthly happiness. At the early age of fourteen — for 
an Eastern girl is then a woman — she becomes one, 
perhaps of a dozen, of some rich man's playthings, 
and is so strictly guarded that should she trip, even 
but on£ hair's breadth from the course she is told to 
pursue, that same night her toy-life is brought to 
a close by a no less dread reality than the waters of 
the Nile closing over her erring head. 

The European is brought, when at Cairo, so im- 

E 4 



56 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



mediately into the presence of all that is romantic 
connected with the fate of woman, that the mys- 
terious cloud, which ever in his imagination he has 
been accustomed to see hanging over the entrance 
of the hareem, becomes charged with the deepest 
interest. As he rides through the city he passes the 
house of a Pasha ; for an instant he pauses, and 
casts reverential eyes upon that part which he knows 
is set apart for the women. Whilst his thoughts are 
busy wandering about among the fair creatures 
within, the gates are suddenly thrown open, and, 
preceded by the chief eunuch, the hareem donkeys 
go forth to take the air. O shades of the beautiful ! 
houris no longer! but six large massive objects, — 
they must be females, for they are so different to 
the men, — sitting astride on as many small donkeys, 
which seem to totter beneath the weight of the 
black silk balloons in which their riders are en- 
veloped. He regrets to see that they have no arms ; 
but then they have legs, which dangle awkwardly 
on either side of the saddle, bandaged as if for the 
gout; and into the stirrups are thrust great spray 
feet, which certainly belong to no other legs. 

Unlike the English belle, who drives on a June 
afternoon to and fro between Apsley House and 
Kensington Gardens, inwardly hoping that, whilst 



A MUSSULMAN'S THEORY OF WOMAN. 57 



her own eyes are wandering about in searcli of the 
picturesque, those of other people may chance to 
rivet themselves upon herself, the Cairene beauty 
leaves all her gracefulness behind in the hareem^ 
and rides out into the world at sunset shrouded in 
her black silk balloon, the personification of all that 
is ugly. Certainly a Mussulman's theory of woman 
is a strange contradiction; for, could a description of 
the East be condensed into a single page, at least 
two-thirds of it would treat of the hareem : the care 
that he takes of her, and the talk that he makes 
about her, ought alone to stamp her the most pre- 
cious and perfect of created beings ; yet are there 
some who deny her the possession of a soul. The 
Koran teaches that all devout followers of Mahomet 
will go to heaven, where, equal in stature to the 
tallest palm-trees, they will live in a state of hap- 
piness, attended by women of proportionate dimen- 
sions, who will ever smile upon them with large 
black eyes ; but in the face of the high position she 
is to hold in another world, and the jealous care 
with which she is guarded in this, the European is 
forced to the conclusion that, after all, a Mussul- 
man's notion of her is quite that of an inferior 
animal, an acquisition purchased at no price, to be 
discarded on the most trifling plea whensoever the 



58 



EASTEEX EXPERIENCES. 



fancy takes him. In the lower classes of Arab life 
it is absolutely necessary for every man to have a 
wife, who acts in lieu of a servant ; but in no case 
can a woman be married without bringing a dowry. 
This dowry is very often as little as eighteen-pence, 
which^ should he repent of his choice^ he has merely 
to retui'n to her with a i:)aper of divorce, to be once 
more a free man ; and leads the public to the sup- 
position that the utmost value of his late wife was 
something short of half-a-crown. 

Xor is the husband compelled to substantiate any 
heinous crime against his wife to procure this paper 
of divorcement. T\Tien a young man in Cairo 
wishes to marry, he goes to some old woman, who 
makes it her business to be well up in the names 
and addresses of all marriageable young ladies, and, 
tendering the usual fee, informs her of his notion of 
a wife ; as, for example, she is to be graceful, with 
large black eyes, wavy hair, of a gentle disposition, 
&c. The old woman then promises to suit him in a 
given time, at the expiration of which he is married, 
and sees his wife unveiled for the first time in the 
nuptial chamber. According to i\Ir. Lane, he ge- 
nerally finds her pretty much such as he has been 
led to expect ; but should he have been, as of coiu'se 
is often the case, the victim of a misplaced confidence 



THE RUMEYLEH. 



59 



iu match-makers^ he lives with her for one week^ as 
the custom is^ and then, presenting her with her 
dowry and her papers of divorce, she returns to her 
friends, and hopes for better luck next time. 

But before I leave talking of the citadel, I must 
call my reader's attention to one more object in con- 
nection therewith, and which, once shown to the 
traveller, is seldom forgotten. 

At the base of the cliff on which the citadel stands, 
extends a large open space, called the Rumeyleh, 
serving as a market-place, where large horse fairs 
are held, and where the execution of all criminals 
condemned to death takes place. Near to the spot 
set apart for this latter purpose is a large stone 
trough, in which the bodies of all of those who have 
suffered death are washed previous to burial ; and as 
it is never cleansed of the blood of the countless 
victims who have here paid the penalty of their 
crimes, but is only diluted every now and then 
with a little fresh water, the ghastly sight which it 
presents may well be imagined : but horrible as is 
the thought, not only do the Cairenes not shrink 
from approaching its blood-stained sides, but they 
are actually to be seen crowding round it, drinking 
of its contents, and attempting to wash away dis- 
eases, for which those contents are said to be a 
^ certain remedy. 



60 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. VI. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE NILE VOYAGE. 

I NOW beo^an to think of makino; arrano;ements for 
going up the Xile ; and, the hotel being filled with 
persons all indulging in the same train of thought, 
it was not long before I was enabled to rejoice in a 
friend, an officer in Her Majesty's ser^^ce. 

On the steps of Shepherd's — nearly pulled to pieces 
by the donkey-boys who are always collected here in 
crowds, to implore any traveller that makes his ap- 
pearance to take a ride, no matter where — ^my friend 
and I agreed to sail up the Nile together, and to 
stand by each other, come weal, come woe, during 
the period of our companionship. 

Whilst we stood eagerly planning the immediate 
future, it occurred to us that nothing definite could 
be done until we had provided ourselves with a 
dragoman ; so, as the first bell was already sounding 
its preparatory summons to dinner, we adjourned to 
our rooms, leaving word with the landlord that we 



DEAGOMEN. 



61 



wished to make a selection of a servant during the 
course of the evening. 

Having read ^^Eothen" and the Crescent and the 
Cross/' I found myself at Cairo filled with lofty and 
romantic notions of dragomen in general ; that they 
were a species of guardian angel^ whose protection 
was to be obtained by payment of very high wages, 
and beneath the shadow of whose wings I was to 
float among the temples on the Mle and across the 
burning solitudes of the desert in sweet security: 
so that having this evening read through, with my 
friend, the testimonials of a magnificently attired 
throng, and finished by soliciting, in exchange for 
our dollars, the services of one of these all-powerful 
gentlemen, I leaned indolently back upon the sup- 
position that all the details of my existence for the 
next few months were accomplished in anticipation, 
and that I might now put my hands in my pockets 
and trust to our dragoman for everything being 
right. 

The dragoman is, properly speaking, an inter- 
preter attached to an embassy, who, receiving a 
salary of from two to three hundred pounds per 
annum, considers himself in a position to hold his 
head, if not higher, quite as high as the minister 
himself. 



62 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Out of this proud race of interpreters has sprung, 
in late years, that large item in the population of 
the East, who, being nothing more than domestiques 
de place^ style themselves dragomen, and elevate their 
chins accordingly. I believe that for the most part 
they start in life as donkey-boys, and, frequenting the 
steps of European hotels, pick up, according to their 
wits, a greater or less amount of Frank languages, 
which, when it has accumulated suflSciently, enables 
them to dispose of their donkeys^ and to offer them- 
selves as candidates for the office of dragoman. 
However, as I said before, as yet I looked upon 
them in the light of quite a superior class of men, 
by whose means I was to see the East as it ought to 
be seen. 

The gentleman who vouchsafed to become our 
dragoman called himself Ibrahim Wyse, possessed 
of numerous flattering credentials as to his abilities, 
and had assumed his latter cognomen from the 
fact of his having, as I learned afterwards, received 
five piastres from the hand of Colonel Howard Vyse, 
in consideration of that antiquarian having bestridden 
his (Ibrahim's) donkey during the greater part of 
one day. In giving us a little sketch of his back 
history, he omitted the particulars of his obscure 
origin, and with a flourish, now of the right, now of 



IBKAHIM IS INTRODUCED TO THE READER. 63 

the left hand, led us to suppose that his relations 
with the Colonel had been of a very intimate nature 
— in short, that the learned man's researches in the 
vicinity of the pyramids had been considerably for- 
warded by his means. 

When we told him that we proposed making the 
Nile voyage, he commenced to measure forth his 
instructions in such wise as induced us to expect the 
greatest things of him ; but he certainly startled us a 
little by first asking how much money we had about 
us, and then saying that we had better deliver it all 
over to him, as he would purchase everything requisite. 

For why," said he, " should the gentleman trouble 
himself; let him give Ibrahim plenty of money, 
whilst he sits on the divan and smokes his pipe. 
Ibrahim never goes this way or that way, but 
always straight ! " But notwithstanding that it was 
early days to think of differing with our dragoman's 
opinion, we declined surrendering our purses, as- 
suring him that, so far from being a trouble, we 
rather looked forward to a little shopping among the 
Cairene tradesmen. 

Having secured a dragoman, the next thing was to 
provide ourselves with a boat, for which purpose we 
mounted some donkeys the next morning and rode 
down to Boulak. 



64 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Beneath the shade of many palms^ which^ shooting 
up from the steep bank in clusters towards the blue 
sky, hang their beautiful heads lovingly over the 
placid, but painfully dirty, waters of the Nile, lay 
swinging in the morning sun long lines of Dahabiehs 
or pleasure boats. White awnings, stretched from 
mast to mast, cast a cool shade along the painted 
decks and down into the snug cabins, the open doors 
and windows of which revealed divans laden with 
brightly coloured cushions, cupboards without number, 
and conveniences of all kinds. In the bows of each 
boat sat a part of its crew, sleepily chatting and 
smoking over their words: the moment, however, 
that we appeared above them, and could be remarked 
casting eyes of admiration upon all the boats gene- 
rally, and not upon any one particularly, they rose 
up like one man, and came scrambling over each 
other up the bank to direct our choice. After ex- 
plaining that we only wished to engage one^ and not 
a series of boats, and that we would look at all of 
them before deciding on any, they allowed the owner 
of the nearest to do the honours first, eyeing him, as 
he helped us on to the deck, with looks of such in- 
tense jealousy as would have been justified only by 
our having already engaged his boat without ever so 
much as looking at theirs. 



SELECTION OF A DAHABIEH. 



65 



For the next hour we were engaged in stepping 
from boat to boat ; and at last succeeded in finding 
one to our taste^ with two good-sized^ cabins divided 
by a space fitted up with a wash-hand stand, &c., 
small enough to go up the Cataracts, and the hire of 
which for the trip to the Second Cataract and back 
was 35/., allowing twenty clear days for stopping at 
Thebes, or at any place where temples were to be 
seen or excursions to be made. 

Not only was the owner interested in the bargain 
that was being struck, but the boat itself and all its 
belongings seemed to awake to a participation in the 
feeling ; for as we stood on the deck gazing with an 
amount of pleasure upon the craft we considered our 
own for the next two months, we saw, issuing from 
every hole and crevice, animals innumerable, from 
the large black cockroach down to those little things 
which, though of household familiarity in England, 
become part of one's existence in Egypt, In dismay 
we thought of cancelling the contract and engaging 
some other boat ; but learning that the rule held the 
same with all, and that we might go further and fare 
worse, we shook hands reluctantly with the an- 
ticipated annoyance ; and, as a step towards lessening 
our future suiferings, gave orders for the boat to be 
sunk before being pronounced ready for occupation. 

p 



66 



EASTERN EXPEHIENCES. 



The next tkree days we spent in the bazaars^ pur- 
chasing everything that would be necessary for us 
during our voyage ; and when we considered that 
after once leaving Cairo behind us we should not be 
able to rectify any omissions, and that we had to 
furnish our boat with every possible requisite, from 
bedding down to a rat-trap, we became fully aware 
of the arduous nature of the task before us, and that, 
in order to complete it properly, we should be obliged 
to be thinking of it, and it only, from morning till 
night. Dividing the work under three heads, my 
friend agreed to hold himself responsible for one, I 
for another, whilst Ibrahim, seizing both his ears, 
took the whole ninety and nine saints of the Mus- 
sulman Calendar to witness that he should not be 
found wanting so far as he was concerned. 

A few sentences in a former chapter, showing the 
enormous difficulties attendant upon a Em'opean in 
Cairo wishing to purchase but one single little ne- 
cessary of life, will have spared my now going into 
all the details of the mass of trouble that my friend 
and I had to surmount during three entire days, 
whilst laying in stores for our Nile voyage. Suffice 
it that, with aching heads, sore feet, and hoarse 
voices, we did at last arrive at the conclusion that we 
had bought every possible thing we could want, and 



THE INEFFICIENCY OF OUR DBAGOMAN. 67 

that we might now start away from Cairo whenever 
we chose ; but we also arrived at another conclusion, 
which gave us great cause of regret, and this was the 
palpable inefficiency of our dragoman, Ibrahim. 

That evening at Shepherd's, when we read his cre- 
dentials and listened afterwards to his own narration 
of all his wonderful abilities, we had looked upon 
him with eyes of admiration, and had thought him a 
second Dhemetri ; but our last three days' experience 
of him among the Cairene bazaars convinced us of 
our mistake, and that his varied talents were but 
children of his imagination, which, though they had 
appeared real and substantial whilst being danced in 
their nurse's arms, had evaporated on being allowed 
to run alone. 

Curtis, in his inimitable " Nile Notes," classifies 
dragomen under four denominations: viz. the Maltese, 
or the cunning knave ; the Greek, or the able knave ; 
the Syrian, or the active knave ; and the Egyptian, 
or the stupid knave. Ibrahim, being an Egyptian, 
would, of course, rank among the last-named set of 
knaves, and so afford another example in favour of 
Curtis's argument ; except that in his case, and it is 
all I can say for him, his knavery was swallowed up 
in his excessive stupidity. But here, again, his 
stupidity told against us ; as it must be confessed 

F 2 



68 



easterns' experiences. 



that, if one is to have a knaye for a servant, he had 
better be an able one ; for though he will cheat his 
master nine times, he will cheat some one else the 
tenth even for him. 

It may seem surprising that we did not dismiss 
him, and engage another ; but understanding that a 
dragoman of no extraordinary capabilities was neces- 
sary for a Nile voyage, we thought, as we had gone 
so far, we would give him another chance, especially 
as his will to do what was clever and striking was 
good. So, having got all our stores down to our boat 
by sunset on the fourth day, we loosed from the 
bank at Boulak, and, mingling with the sliipping, 
the tall yards of which were spiring shiningly into 
the evening sky, we let go our last hold upon 
civilisation, and made our first step towards Thebes 
and the Nubian Cataracts. 

But though we had slipped our moorings, we had 
not fairly pushed off into the stream. There were 
many boats striving, like our own, to disentangle 
themselves from the mass of cangias and dahabiehs 
at anchor ; and outside all were other boats strug- 
gling fiercely to force their way into all the con- 
fusion, to secure the berths that we were abandoning ; 
so that, what with the outward bound and the home- 
ward bound, and the numerous obstacles that lay 
between them, it was a long while before we got our 



OUR NILE VOYAGE COMMENCES. 69 

own way. However^ after a great deal of shouting 
and fighting amongst the Arabs^ and incessant use of 
their long punting poles^ we managed to extricate 
ourselves at last from the Babel at Boulak; and 
gliding rapidly out into the centre of the river, 
we listened to the multitude of voices and the 
bumping of the boats still engaged in the fray, 
growing fainter astern of us. Our Nile voyage had 
commenced. It was moonlight. I make the asser- 
tion with diffidence, as it will be said I am aiming at 
the beautiful ; but it certainly was moonlight, for I 
remember the long line of palms on the western 
bank was fringed with silver, and I saw it sheeting 
across the river till it fell upon our boat, illuminating 
the deck and the comfortable blue cabin, w hilst all 
beyond was dark ; but our course lay onwards and 
southwards into the moonlight, and we cared very 
little for the darkness we were leaving behind. 

As the evening breeze had died away at sunset, 
leaving our sails drooping from the tall lateen yards 
in heavy folds upon the deck, the crew again had 
recourse to their long poles, with which they pushed 
us, singing as they followed each other up and down 
along the deck, past the island of Rhoda to the 
opposite side of the river, where they moored us 
beneath the palms for the night. 

F 3 



70 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. VII. 

NILE LIFE." 

After the most unsatisfactory night's rest that till 
then it had been my lot to experience, I rose at 
sunrise with a half-inclination to return to the 
comforts of Cairo, and to give up all notion of a 
two months' voyage on the Nile. 

Really tired, and longing for sleep, I had laid 
my head on the pillow, repeating the words, Oh if 
there be an Elysium on earth, it is this, it is this ! " 
But one is often completely deceived at the first 
blush of any new arrangement, and so it proved 
with me. Hardly had I finished Moore's pretty 
little piece of sentiment, when the creeping, 
crawling, and hopping of many creatures all over 
and about me, changed the whole tone of my mind. 
Even as I lay musing over my prospects for the 
night, a large cockroach fell cold and damp on to 
the corner of my mouth from the cabin ceiling, 
and in a twinklino; makino; use of its numerous 
legs, wriggled itself round my neck and down my 



FIKST NIGHT ON THE NILE. 71 

back. As most persons are prone^ at any inter- 
ruption^ however trifling the cause, during the 
dark hours of the night, I jumped instantly to the 
terrible conclusion, associating cockroaches with 
scorpions, that I had been stung by some venomous 
animal. Regardless of two enormous rats as large 
as puppy dogs of a week old and a great deal more 
savage, which were playing about on the floor, I 
sprang out of bed and struck a lucifer. Imagine 
my feelings on counting at least a dozen cock- 
roaches, varying in length from an inch to an inch 
and a half, all in close vicinity to where my head 
ought to be on the pillow, fleas without number, 
and a good sprinkling of mahogany flats." 

I was so put about," as a nursery-maid would 
say, at the sight, that, without attempting to combat 
the difliculty, I dressed myself, and, stepping from 
the boat on to the bank, I strolled off into the 
moonlight, on the look out for some more endurable 
Elysium beneath a palm-tree. After walking about 
till I was so tired and sleepy that I could but just 
keep my eyes open, I returned to my fleas and 
cockroaches, and, lying down dressed as I was in 
the midst of them, slept soundly till the morning. 

By the time we had completed our toilette we 
had left our nocturnal moorings far astern ; and as 

F 4 



72 



EASTEEN EXPEEIENCES. 



we breakfasted on deck in the sunsMne, the fresh 
morning breeze blowing among the cups and 
saucers^ we made our comm^ents upon the curiously 
shaped Pyramids of Dashoor, which we were slowly 
passing on our right. 

There is nothing very interesting in the aspect 
of the NUe for many miles after passing Old Cairo 
and its opposite neighbour, the town of Ghizeh, 
and you steal quietly up the river, enjoying the 
soft air of an Egyptian winter and its warm sun, 
and, if you smoke, as you needs must do when you 
find yourself among the divan cushions, the amber- 
tipped chibouque. 

As we are now fairly embarked for some two 
months, I may as well give a brief sketch of boat- 
life on the Nile. 

When the sun, shinins: throuo-h our cabin win- 
dows, illuminates our mosquito curtains to such a 
degree, that further sleep is out of the question, 
first one, then the other, tumbles out of bed; — then 
nothing more can be done without the dragoman ; 
so there are shouts for Ibrahim, or, as the Arabs 
call him, 'braheem." Shaking himself from his 
hairy capote, like a dog from the middle of a loose 
heap of straw, up'' gets our fac-totum from the 
door-mat, on vvhich he nightly rolls himself up. 



HOW WE SPEND THE DAY. 



^^3 



Thinking to please us^ he salutes us in Arabic 
with a sentence which would present the following 
appearance, if written in English characters, — 

Sabbach bel hayr ya Seedeh " * — and then takes 
half an hour trying to explain it to us. 

With a rope wound round the hand to prevent 
our being carried away by the current, we next 
proceed to excite the admiration of the crew by 
plunging ourselves head first into the river; and 
having luxuriated in a good bath, we retire to our 
cabins to dress, during which time the dragoman 
prepares the breakfast on deck beneath the awning. 
With tremendous appetites we discuss coffee and 
eggs, bread, marmalade, and curry, to a degree 
which I am sure I shall never see surpassed, or 
even equalled, except on the Nile ; and then follows 
almost the sweetest hour of the day. Leaning 
back on our divans, the chibouques are handed to 
us, and looking dreamily onward among the far-off 
reaches of the river, we have but, as it were, to 
caress with our lips the cool and polished amber 
mouth-pieces, to draw thence such a cloud, as in an 
instant clothes the mud villages, which we are 
continually passing, with all the poetry, all the 
romance, and all those airy arabesques with which 

* Good morning, Master." 



74 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



from earliest childhood we have been taught to 
associate aught that is eastern. 

Towards noon — for just at this season it is not 
too hot — we shoulder our guns ; and whilst the men 
slowly track the boat towards Thebes and the 
Cataracts of Nubia^ we walk towards the mud vil- 
lages, and, regardless of the attacks of many and 
savage dogs, we shoot as many pigeons as would 
last us for a month, if my friend and I were the 
only persons to eat them. When two o'clock 
comes, providing a favourable wind has not brought 
us back before, we return to the boat. Sketching, 
reading, or cleaning our guns, fills up our time till 
five o'clock, when, dinner being over, we are seen 
again reclining on our divans, with coffee and pipes, 
gazing in sweet astonishment on the glories of the 
sinking sun. 

The evening is generally devoted to diary-keep- 
ing; and, as I sit now writing these lines in the 
cabin, our boat is stealing gently up the river by 
the pure light of the stars, and the crew are 
sitting in the bows, singing and clapping their hands 
above their heads, keeping time with the thrum of 
the tarabuka: and thus the sun-set melts almost 
instantaneously into night, whilst we sit reading 
and writing, listening, now to the monotonous song 



AN ARAB FIGHT, 



75 



of the Arabs^ and now to the water, as it gurgles 
by, beneath our craft. The day ends so, till a clap 
of the hands, about ten o'clock, brings Ibrahim into 
the cabin to make up our beds, and tuck us into 
our mosquito nets. 

At first starting, a Nile voyage does not seem to 
promise a period of any great enjoyment As yet 
very far from Thebes, and the atmosphere of 
Temples and Tombs, saving the pyramids, which, 
in all sizes and shapes, seem to haunt one for the 
first week, I began seriously to think of becoming 
a vegetable, seeking only to exist, till such time as 
I should deem it advisable once more to resume my 
mental faculties. 

One day, as we sat on deck beneath the awning at 
dinner, our dragoman standing at ease at a respectful 
distance, — for already he began to entertain a whole- 
some dislike to my friend's boots, — and the black 
cook every now and then peeping round the corner 
of the kitchen, to see how we enjoyed our "kebabs," 
we were startled by hearing a row on the banks close 
to which we were creeping along; so we jumped up 
to see what was going on. All Nile travellers can- 
not fail to have remarked how that every Arab is 
invariably armed with a long savage looking stick. 
Hitherto, I had seen these weapons brought into 



76 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



collision with nothing more noble than the hind- 
quarters of some poor miserable donkey ; now, how- 
ever, they were aspiring to far higher things, for on 
the mnd-bank above us were about a dozen Fellahs, 
or labouring Arabs, who, with their loose blue caftans 
tucked into their sashes to facilitate their movements, 
were hitting away at each other with right good 
will; and very clever they must have been at the 
game of quarter-staff ; for, swinging their long clubs 
high in the air, they brought them down somewhere 
in the centre of the scuffle, with such tremendous 
force, that, if they had not been one and all most 
skilful in the art of self-defence, even an Arab's 
num-skull must have succumbed beneath such irre- 
sistible arguments. 

After a bout of five or ten minutes, they all 
seemed to give over, as if by common consent ; and 
back they marched to their separate villages, each 
party aj)parently well-satisfied with the meeting 
beneath the palms by the river side. Ibrahun was 
noisily eloquent as to the meaning of all this : You 
see them, sir: they wild country people, live in these 
two villages there long way off; they not like each 
other, so they make little quarrel; you know this 
very well, Howadji, this m.y country; I know this 
very well; I tell this by my head (pointing upwards 



NILE BKEEZES. 



77 



to his turban) by my sense^ yes sir; you knoAV this 
very well, yes sir." Ibrahim has spoken; so the 
Howadji, as all Egyptian travellers are styled, has to 
wonder at the vastness of his learning, and be silent. 

Each day that we were slowly tracked along the 
banks, or were sent bowling up mid-river with a fresh 
and fair north breeze, did we learn to appreciate the 
delights and luxuries of the East, which were ever 
being wafted to us upon soft Arabian winds: each 
day did we drink with increasing pleasure of the 
sweet waters of the Nile ; and daily did we seem to 
dive yet more deeply into the mysteries of the still- 
distant south. We knew we were leaving behind us 
the hot sands of Egypt; yet did we delight in the 
thought, that each sun that sank beneath the horizon 
of the Lybian desert, had set but to return on the 
morrow still hotter and more sultry, till such time as, 
floating up into the farthest extremes of Nubia, he 
should look down upon us with such searching inten- 
sity, as should force us to say, that we had had enough 
of the tropics. 

There were many English boats besides ours on 
the Nile; so that we often fell in with companions on 
our shooting excursions among the sugar-cane and 
cotton plantations; and at night, as our several 
floating homes, moored alongside each other, lay 



78 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



gently swinging beneath ttie overhanging acacias^ 
evening calls were exchanged^ and invites to tea, 
chess, and chibouques, were frequent. One great 
source of amusement, and of which we were nearly 
evening after evening most untiring witnesses, was 
watching the Arabs at their suppers. The different 
crews, their day's work over, would light their fires 
at a little distance off, under the palms; and arranging 
themselves into circles, would sing, chat, and smoke 
over their evening meal. At intervals the flames, 
roused by some one of their hard feet used as a poker, 
would leap high up above their heads, illuminating 
their copper-coloured faces and white teeth, which 
were brought out into strong relief by the surround- 
ino* darkness. Often a favourable breeze would 
suddenly spring up during these al fresco meals : in 
a minute the groups would be broken up, the fires 
would be abandoned to shed their warmth upon 
solitudes, and all those men, so lately in the best of 
humours, would seem to be suddenly thrown into all 
the paroxysms of uncontrollable rage. 

We reached Benisoueff on the sixth day after 
leaving Cairo, a distance of 77 miles. Of course this 
rate of sailing was very far from satisfactory; but we 
had been very unfortunate in our v/eather, not having 
had any but adverse breezes since starting. 



AKAB GRATITUDE. 79 

Benisoueff is the first town of any importance that 
one passes, ascending the Nile from Cairo. It is on 
the left bank of the river, and presents the usual pic- 
turesque grouping of mosque domes and minarets, in 
common with all other eastern towns. It is the ca- 
pital of a province, but its bazaars are very poor 
and meagre, offering no temptations towards an 
investment in the curious. 

With a view towards stimulating the energies of 
our crew, we presented them with a sheep and some 
tobacco on leaving this town, which, as our dragoman 
explained to us, was the correct thing to do, unless 
we wished to linger out some six or eight months in 
performing the voyage to the Cataracts and back. 

The only means of arriving at an Arab's affections 
is by plying him continually with bribes. I say con- 
tinually, for he only receives one act of kindness to 
make him long the more greedily for another. Thus, 
in order to keep up his interest in you, a strict watch 
is necessary, that not a single opportunity slip of your 
promoting his happiness in one way or another: in 
fact, an Arab's gratitude " strikingly illustrates that 
definition of it so constantly to be met with in the 
world, viz. " a lively sense of favours to come." 

Our crew consisted of ten men, including the Reis, 
or captain, and the second Reis, or steersman; the 



80 



EASTEHN EXPEPvIENCES. 



remaining eight were nearly all Nubians, and fine 
strong effective men. Our cook was the character — 
a most excellent artiste^ but very ugly ; his salary 
was 3/. per month. The pride he took in attending 
upon our appetites was most laudable: he scorned 
ribs of mutton, or a roast turkey, as things of history; 
his art lay in little entrees, and all kinds of made dishes. 
(I blush to say that we lived like gourmands on the 
Nile.) He could make a first-rate curry, of which 
he was quite conscious ; and he always placed it on 
the table with a flushed face, as if, like a young 
mother, he had had an anxious time with it ; but a 
single Taib " from the Howadji sent him back to 
his kitchen composed and even cheerful. 



KOLSAN. 



81 



CHAR VIIL 

KOLSAN PALMS. 

Many of the Arab villages along the banks of the 
Nile, though in reality nothing but small collections 
of the most miserable description of mud hovelj form 
exquisite studies for the pencil of the artist. 

To recent travellers on the river of Egypt, the 
village of Kolsan may, perhaps, be remembered as 
affording a very favourable specimen. Circumstances 
may have conspired to render my reminiscences the 
most vivid ; it may be that I was just then in a 
peculiarly happy state of mind ; it may have been the 
soothing effect produced upon me, as I sat cross- 
legged on the divan with my chibouque, listening to 
the monotonous chant of the Arabs, as, at the further 
extremity of an immensely long rope, they tracked 
and sang the boat along towards the close of the 
day ; or it may have been the hour, for it was sun- 
set that saw us mooring to the bank beneath the 
Kolsan palms, colouring with its sinking splendour 

a 



82 



EASTEHX EXPEEIEXCES. 



the sails of our boat, as tliey clung and folded them- 
selves into an embrace of the tall lateen yards, pre- 
paratory to their night*s rest. In all probability it 
was a little of all. However, be it as it may, certain 
it was that my friend and I, long after the sun had 
disappeared, even long after an Egyptian moon had 
commenced to throw its uncertain light among the 
low, flat-roofed houses, and the massively foliaged 
acacias that gently waved above them, wandered 
about, inwardly resolving that we would ever after 
swear by the beauties of Kolsan. 

Our nocturnal reveries, in which we very often 
indulged, stretched beneath some nodding palm, 
makino; astronomical observations accordino; to our 
own celestial notions, were but too often rudely 
broken in upon much in the way as were those which 
we spent in the environs of Kolsan ; for we never 
could be absent very long from our boat, before we 
had two or three of the crew after us, who, as they 
could not see us by reason of the darkness, would 
keep shouting, as they ran about holding their 
fanooses, or paper lanterns, above their heads, Ya 
Howadji ! ya Howadji I *' When they found us they 
used to kiss our hands and grin, repeating that ever- 
lasting word, BucksheeshJ'^ Ibrahim always had a 
reason for what we considered these untimely inter- 



ibeahim's knowledge of accounts. 83 

ruptions: This very wild country villlg, not safe for 
tlie gentlemen." 

So far things had gone on tolerably serenely with 
the dragoman ; but it would have taken a far less 
amount of penetration and foresight than that pos- 
sessed by my companion, to have predicted his ap- 
proaching downfal. I remember one night, that, as 
we sat and smoked after dinner over our bottle of Bur- 
gundy, we both came to the conclusion that it was 
useless putting off the evil day, and that we might as 
well now^as at any future time, summon our dragoman 
and cook, to account for different monies entrusted 
to their care since leaving Cairo. 

Now it is an acknowledged fact among all eastern 
wanderers, that any Howadji prying with too inte- 
rested an eye into his own affairs, what time that they 
are under the surveillance of one of that much-to-be- 
detested dragomanic race, is ever after looked upon 
as a meddling, inquisitive fellow." I say this is an 
acknowledged fact, and considering we had already 
been some little time in Egypt, it may not be thought 
strange that we also knew it. We who had left 
London to see the great world by way of Paris, nor 
had been jolted about in a Maltese caleche^ nor had 
stridden an Alexandrian donkey in vain — I say, we 
too were in possession of this curious fact ; yet with 

G 2 



84 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



all this experience, we fearlessly produced our small 
account-books, and, whilst we removed the amber 
from our lips, summoned to the cabin the dragoman 
and cook, there to answer such questions as we 
might think fit to ask them. All those little 
essential details of literary composition, such as 
words, time, and paper, would fail me to paint in its 
true colour the awful wrangle which there and then 
took place ; — suffice it that from eight o'clock the 
long hands of our watches had wandered half-asleep 
past the hour of eleven, and were meditating an 
attack on midnight, before we had the pluck to 
dismiss our Moslem tormentors. 

The only excuse one can give for these men 
causing one so much trouble is, that, in general, they 
have not the most remote idea of reading or writing 
— much less that more abstruse science of accounts ; 
so that they tumble out first one item of expense, 
then another, credits and debits continually knocking 
each other's heads, occasionally remarking, I tell 
this my head, sir, by my sense." 

By degrees we sailed into the region of sugar-cane ; 
and little else was to be heard on our boat, save the 
splitting and munching of that article. Nor were we 
slow in following the example of the crew, especially 
as we found it to be uncommonly good ; so there 



GEEEL ABOOFEYDA. 



85 



was sugar-cane for breakfast, sugar-cane all the 
morning, again at tea, and, in fact, sugar-cane for 
the live-long day. I believe it is said to be very- 
wholesome, and serves to clarify the blood : it also 
possesses another qualification, not an unimportant 
one, that of whitening the teeth. 

A fair north-wester winged us in the most spi- 
rited manner past the palm-sheltered village of 
El Kossayr, where we entered the lands of the 
Thebaid, and within range of the crocodile. After 
sunset, and whilst the darkness was thickly gather- 
ing around us, we approached the bluff heights of 

Gebel Aboofeyda : " and the breeze, freshening, 
came howling down from the gullies of the mountain 
in such wise as to make our craft bend right gallantly 
before its gentle persuasion, causing us at the same 
time some anxiety, when we called to mind the 
words of Sir Gardner Wilkinson : Sudden gusts of 
wind render great precaution necessary in sailing 
beneath these mountains, and many accidents have 
happened in this part of the river." 

One bright sunny morning we were awoke by our 
crew making a great shouting and noise on deck, 
and, looking out of window to ascertain the cause, 
we found that we were aground, and foul of two 
other Dahabiehs, belonging to some Polish noblemen, 

G 3 



86 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



sailing under the Austrian flag ; so that it was clear 
as daylight to every sensible Mussulman that it 
required no small row to set us right again. After 
half-an hour's pushing and hauling, we were all three 
once more clear of each other, and, with a fresh 
breeze, were carried to Manfaloot. Here we landed, 
as the dragoman wished to make some purchases in 
the bread and chicken line, towards replenishing our 
larder. Manfaloot is quite a third-rate town, a great 
part of it having been carried away by the Nile, 
which now flows over the spot where the principal 
portion once stood. 

Slowly we crept out again into the stream before 
a fair, but so delicate a breeze, that our large sails 
could hardly be persuaded to lift their many folds 
which lay crowding together over the prow. For a 
few hours we floated languidly on ; but, as sunset left 
every plank in our boat mirrored on the calm, we 
let her drift astern slantways down the river, till we 
reached the bank; and then, as the spot was pro- 
nounced too wild and desolate, we threw the men 
ashore, to track us to the next village, where we 
should find safer and more cheerful moorings for the 
night. 

My friend and I also jumped ashore with our 
guns ; but as the crew got on but slowly, we soon 



THE vulture's MEAL. 87 

found ourselves so far advanced, that we could only 
at intervals catch the sound of their voices, singing 
as they worked. With no signs of any village 
ahead, and the darkness increasing at every step, 
we were just debating whether or no to turn back, 
when the noise as of the revolving sails of a wind- 
mill at our backs made us both start. In another 
minute, however, our nerves regained their wonted 
serenity, as an immense vulture with heavily flap- 
ping wings hopped swiftly by us into the darkness 
beyond. Close on the heels of a momentary fear 
came curiosity, for the silence of the gathering 
night was now broken by the ill-omened bird's harsh 
scream of delight as he pounced on the prey by the 
river's edge, which had so tickled his olfactory 
organ from afar. Guided by the noise he made, we 
presently reached the spot ; and, having succeeded 
in driving him away — conjecture, oh you of my 
readers who have never seen anything more hor- 
rible than the dilapidated form of an old crow 
fluttering in the breeze over a springing crop of 
corn, what it was that my friend and I discovered, 
by peering very closely down and gently touching, 
to have been the vulture's feast ! — a meal indeed 
for the horrid bird, and perchance, a sight that 
would have cheered the heart of De Quincey's 

G 4 



88 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Ratcliife Highway hero ! Killed too recently to 
have become yet very offensive, we had stumbled 
upon the body of a murdered man, frightfully muti- 
lated, a leg and an arm of which, completely severed, 
were lying at some little distance off! Heartily 
we agreed with Ibrahim and the reis that the spot 
was too wild and desolate for our nightly moorings ! 



OSIO0>T. 89 



CHAP. IX 

OSIOOT. 

At sunrise on the morning of the fourteenth day 
after leaving Cairo, we discovered^ far inland^ 
spiring up from among the acacias, the gilded mina- 
rets of Osioot; and soon after our boat lay swinging 
beneath the palms of El-Hamra ; for as Boulak is to 
Cairo, so is El-Hamra to Osioot. 

As we were still a couple of miles from the town, 
we mounted some donkeys and commenced to ride 
thither, the dragoman on before, holding his chi- 
bouque over his right shoulder after the manner of 
a lance, seeming to grow bigger and of more im- 
portance as we proceeded ; the idea doubtless occur- 
ring to him, what on earth should we do without 
him in the great city we were then approaching." 

Beneath a low-arched gateway we rode into 
Osioot — not at once into all the bustle of the 
bazaars, for we had to pass through the court-yard 
of the Governor's palace. Surrounded with trees. 



90 



EASTEEN EXPEEIEXCES, 



the sun shone not there; all was cool and quiet. 
On a low stone bench^ running all rounds reposed, 
in every posture connected vrith lounging, people 
of all sorts, — mild, soft-eyed Egyptians, wiry 
Copts, and double-chinned, grey-bearded Turks. 
Coffee-sipping and chibouque-smoking seemed to 
afford each one the most intense amusement ; for 
not a word was spoken. The ground was varie- 
gated here and there with groups of figures, mostly 
clothed in white ; some playing with draughts, 
whilst others seemed absorbed in o-ames with shells. 
Silence seemed to be the order of the day, so we 
donkeyed C[uietly across the scpare, retm-ning the 
gaze of many large soft eyes, which were uplifted 
on us as we passed by. 

Leaving the Governor's palace, we entered the 
lono; strao'dino; bazaars. Ao:ain screened from the 
fierce glare of the sun, we slipped quietly along 
with the turbaned stream that was ever moving up 
and down the long Moorish arcades. Whilst 
Ibrahim went to market for us, we sat on the divan 
of a coffee-house ; and as we inhaled the perfume 
of -the tumbak, through the long serpentine tube 
of the nargueh, dreamily listening to the bubble of 
the water, we watched with renewed interest the 
gay masquerade that was enacting beneath us. 



THE OSIOOT BAZAAKS. 



91 



Small Egyptians^ innocent of clothing, laughed and 
made faces at us, as they passed, seated cross-legged 
in baskets, which were balanced with wonderful 
ingenuity upon the heads of their mothers ; nor did 
they seem to become the least conscious of their 
perilous positions, whenever some tall camel swung 
its head sleepily in very close proximity to them. 

On the ground opposite squatted a very hag, 
engaged in disposing of a large heap of dark-brown 
bread pancakes to the numerous passers-by, sur- 
rounded by fierce wolf-like dogs, who watched 
anxiously for her back to be turned to bolt olf with 
at least half her stock in trade ; whilst immediately 
over the unfortunate and ancient female baker, was 
a barber's shop, its proprietor busily employed in 
shaving the dirty pate of a still dirtier looking Arab, 
singing a melancholy cadence as he passed his razor 
skilfully about the ears of his patient — the subject 
of his song being doubtless ourselves, if we could 
gather aught from the significant glances which he 
threw at us from time to time across the way : why 
two Franks should be sitting in the coffee-shop op- 
posite at that particular moment on that particular 
day ? and why it should so chance that we got up 
at the moment we did, and moved away ? 

After extricating ourselves from the labyrinth of 



92 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



bazaars of which Osloot is composed, we donkeyed 
on to Stabl Antar, one of many tombs, cut in the 
side of a neighbouring mountain ; and here, as we 
tried to decipher hieroglyphics, and stumbled over 
heaps of mummied wolves, we called to mind the 
words of Herodotus regarding the ancient city of 
Lycopolis, the site of which this is supposed 
to be. 

Not satisfied with merely inspecting tombs, my 
friend and I climbed to the summit of the mountain, 
whence one of the most glorious panoramas in the 
whole of Egypt was spread out before us. Without 
any hedges to diversify the plain beneath us, the 
valley of the Xile, here very broad, lay at our 
feet, stretching miles and miles away, like some 
gigantic billiard table, on either side of the river. 
From the height on which we stood, we could 
plainly mark the points at which cultivation sud- 
denly ceased, succumbing to the all-powerful arm of 
the mighty desert. Not the least beautiful part of 
the picture was the Mussulman cemetery, which 
lay afar off in the desert, looking like a city of 
mosques in miniature. 

One of the reasons for our stopping at Osioot 
was to give our crew time for a bread-baking, an 
operation which they are obliged to perform at least 



THE CKEAY BAKE BREAD. 



93 



twice, and sometimes three times, during a voyage to 
the Second Cataract and back. 

As this bread-baking at Osioot had been stipu* 
lated for in the contract made between us and the 
owner of the boat when in Cairo, and to which we 
had appended our signatures before the British 
consul, the reis and his crew had seemed to us to 
take, ever since leaving Boulak, a sort of savage 
pleasure, in constantly reminding us that they could 
oblige us to stop here whether we would or no ; so 
that at last the simple undertaking of converting 
flour into bread had assumed quite a mysterious 
. form ; and still more was the mystery enhanced 
when we returned after nightfall to our boat, having 
been in the bazaars all day, and found one solitary 
sailor keeping watch over our goods and chattels, all 
the rest being engaged in the town at the bread- 
baking. 

We had finished dinner, the candles in the cabin 
were lighted, and till within an hour of midnight we 
sat reading Murray's Handbook for Egypt and 
writing up our journals ; but still the crew remained 
at the bake-house in the town, and still the solitary 
sailor sat in the bows of the boat smoking his pipe, 
awaiting their return, till we were so sleepy that we 
put the candles out and went to bed. 



94 



EASTERN EXPEPaEXCES. 



I cannot answer for my friend's dreams, but I 
remember that mine teemed with hot ovens^ crusty 
loaves^ and swarthy Arabs in white aprons and paper 
caps, their bare arms of a snowy complexion with 
being continually plunged into great heaps of soft 
flour ; and then the scene changed to the capacious 
porches of country churches, where, upon shelves 
ao:ainst the walls, were rano-ed lono; rows of white 
loaves, the delight of all the old women from the 
neighbouring almshouses. And so the night passed 
away, till among the small hours of the morning I 
was awoke by a clattering noise upon the deck above, 
which sounded like the most fearful hailstorm, 
mingled with the pattering of men's feet, and many 
voices in violent altercation. Of course my first 
thought was of the bread-baking; but then surely 
this shower of things could not be loaves of bread ! 
However, on learning from Ibrahim that such was 
the case, I went off to sleep again, more mystified 
than ever. 

The moment on rising that I was far advanced 
enough in dressing to appear on deck, I did so, and 
then I saw to my astonishment, that, instead of 
myriads of crusty loaves, the cabin roof was covered 
with heaps of what appeared to be small flint-stones : 
and this was the result of the twenty-four hours' 



OUH SAILORS BEEAKFAST. 95 

baking stipulated for in the contract. On examining 
one of tliem^ and feeling convinced of my own 
inability ever to get my teeth through it^ I was 
anxious to see how the Arabs would manage it ; and, 
as breakfast was then preparing, my wish was soon 
gratified. One of the crew who acted as cook 
having prepared a quantity of lentil soup in an 
iron pot, threw in a few handfuls of flints," which 
I need hardly say were speedily converted into 
about the same consistency. Breakfast being pro- 
nounced ready, all the other Arabs gathered round, 
and, making good use of their fingers, they were not 
long in transferring the contents of the iron pot to 
their own stomachs. 

Saving on some few occasions, when we gave them 
a sheep as a bucksheesh " for good conduct, this mess 
of lentil and bread was all our crew subsisted upon 
during the voyage, and which, whenever our boat 
was moored in a fertile spot, they strove to improve 
by sending one of their number to collect an armful 
of a peculiar species of herb, which, when chopped 
up and thrown in with the bread, added a piquancy 
to its flavour. 

It was but a tiny breeze that favoured us, as we 
once more shook out our lateen sails, and, creeping 
into the sunshine from beneath the palms and acacias 



96 



EASTERN EXPEKIENCES. 



of El Hamra, stood over to the opposite side of the 
river that we might lessen the current. Towards 
noon^ however^ it came down from the mountains like 
a giant; our frail craft seemed to hesitate a moment as 
to whether she should capsize or proceed, whilst the 
big sails flapped and banged, first on one side and 
then on the other, as if struggling to get free. The 
contest was short but severe, and ended in our reis, 
with the help of his nine men, gaining the victory. 
All was soon made '^taut and snug," and our 
boat righting, after smashing a little crockery, flew 
wildly before the gale. Two hours after, the Polish 
Dahablehs came bowling up the river in our wake. 
We held our own gallantly for some time, for though 
they were the faster sailers, a stern chase is ever a 
long one ; when, to our surprise, we suddenly put 
about, let go our sheet, and drove with tremendous 
force, head on to the bank, allowing the other boats 
to rush past us. Half beside ourselves with vexation, 
my friend and I threw down our pipes and jumped 

on deck, What the " (we were very nearly 

saying something wrong, but we corrected ourselves 
in time, and quietly added, " What's the matter ? ") 
" Dropped one them long sticks," said Ibrahim. 
Before we could give any directions, the dingey had 
been cast off, and three men in her were pulling 



A PUNTING POLE IS LOST. 



97 



after the lost article, which was already carried a 
mile away by the current. It was useless for us to 
shout after them that we would give them fifty long 
sticks, as Ibrahim chose to term them, at Girgeh, 
if they would only let that one alone — go they 
would, and go they did, leaving us fast to the bank 
to await their return, which did not happen till two 
full hours after ; thus losing so much valuable time, 
with a ten-knot breeze in the question, and all for 
the sake of a miserable old punting pole, of which 
we already had half-a-dozen on board. Fifteen 
hundred tyfels," we ejaculated, and as usual sat down 
to dinner, for the first time contemplating an Egyp- 
tian sunset in angry mood. 

Annoying as all such little contre-temps were at 
the time, I feel quite sure, now that I am able to 
look back and view them in the past, that they were 
but necessary evils, by which the sweetness of our 
Egyptian days were tempered. How is it possible 
that any Englishman, blessed with a due amount of 
national choler, should sweep day after day sun- 
tranced up the sakia-Wigmg * Nile, with nothing to 

* The sahia is the water-wheel of Egypt, used for irrigatinsr 
the land on either side of the river, erected at short intervals 
on the banks throughout the whole Nile valley. It is always 
worked by a couple of oxen, and, as it never tastes grease, con- 

H 



98 



EASTEKN EXPERIENCES. 



disturb the calm tenor of his life^, and find himself 
even on the high road to happiness ? For my part 
I think it absolutely requisite that once a week, at 
the very least, he should have the opportunity of 
blowing-up " every one about him, and thus, with 
plenty of bodily exercise, he will always find him- 
self in very tolerable condition. 

Hotter and more sultry grew the weather, as we 
day by day approached nearer to the tropics. Our 
mid-day shooting excursions we began to vote labo- 
rious : and often as we lay stretched on our carpets 
beneath the awning, dreaming over Latakia, the idea 
would occur to us, what mere vegetables we were 
gradually becoming: then, as the day waned and 
cooled, and we were once more able to take an in- 
terest in life, we would blame each other's indolence 
and apathy, and resolve that the next day should be 
spent in a manner more befitting rational creatures. 

As a great step towards carrying out these wise 
resolutions, we one mornino: bethouocht ourselves of 
turning laundresses ; for the washing, starching, and 
ironing, and, in fact, the getting up of fine linen, 
was quite beyond the range of dragomanic powers; 
hence we determined to do it all ourselves. Small 



tinually sootlies the traveller with its soporific drone as he floats 
np the river. 



WE ATTEMPT TO GET UP " FINE LINEN. 99 

beginnings make great endings;" and whilst re- 
peating this well-known proverb^ we each seized a 
pocket-handkerchief, and dived forthwith into all the 
mysteries of the wash-tub. A long debate then 
took place as to whether that particular item in our 
toilette " required starching : coming at last to the 
conclusion that it certainly did, we starched it ac- 
cordingly. Now, whether it was that we had laid it 
on too thickly, or had made some other blunder with 
it, we could not tell; — one thing was evident, and 
that was, that the pocket-handkerchief did not look 
very nice ; for it presented very much the appear- 
ance of having been suddenly taken with measles, 
covered all over as it was with blue spots. Ex- 
perientia docet ; " and I suppose it needless to say 
that we never again attempted to get up a pocket- 
handkerchief after the manner of a shirt front. 

The fair north breezes, which had been filling our 
sails for the last week, seemed at length to have died 
away in the sweet south ; and now all day, through 
many a weary hour, were our poor men engaged in 
their heavy work of tracking, whilst we, with our 
rifles on our arms, used to walk along the banks on 
the look-out for a crocodile, fold on fold of cambric 
wrapt round our heads, on which the sun beat down 
with intense heat. 

H 2 



100 



EASTEEN EXPEEIENCES. 



Late one afternoon we folded our wings before the 
town of Keneh. Dinner was ready^ and we ^^comme 
toujours" were very hungry : but Murray told of 
Temples to be seen. For one short moment appetite 
took up a position versus intellect^ and a struggle 
ensued : but^ in the end, Antiquities got the best of 
it, and, leaving our repast to await our return, we 
donkeyed across the intervening plain to Denderah. 

Never have I felt so small, or of so little account, 
as when, creeping down a small flight of rude steps, 
I entered the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, and 
found myself, so soon as I could pierce the surround- 
ing gloom, in a vast hall peopled with columns the 
most huge. Glancing upwards, I met the gaze of 
the monster faces with which each column was sur- 
mounted: their great eyes seemed to look down 
reprovingly on me, as if to warn me against exploring 
too minutely the awful solitudes over which they 
reigned. The grand and heavy architecture of 
Denderah tells us that it dates from the times of the 
Ptolemies and Cassars : and therefore, when com- 
paring it with the other temples of the Nile valley, 
it is almost a modern work ; and though its ponderous 
beauties and gorgeously painted walls may not give 
that pleasure to the student of hieroglyphics that the 
Theban ruins do, still, to the mere admirer of 



THE PORTICO AT DENDERAH. 101 



Egyptian wonders, there is a large field among the 
tremendous halls and columns of this temple of 
Athor. 

The portico is of a still more modern date than the 
rest of the temple, and was built in the time of 
Tiberius, as will be seen from the following inscrip- 
tion : — 

THEP ATT0KPAT0P02 TIBEPIOT KAI2A- 
P02 NEOT 2EBASTOT, ©EOT SEBA2T0T 
TIOT, Eni ATAOT ATIAAIOT ^AAKKOT 
HPEMONOS, ATAOT ^OAMIOT KPISnOT 
EniSTPATHrOT, SAPAniONOS TPTXAM- 
EOT 2TP ATHPOTNTOS, Ol AHO TH2 MHTPO- 
nOAEOS KAI TOT NOMOT TO HPONAON 
A$POAlTH @EA MEPISTH KAI TOIS 2TN- 
NAOIS @EOI2 (L. K.) TIBEPIOT KAISAP02. 
(A©TP KA.) 

^^For the welfare of Tiberius Caesar, the new 
Augustus, son of the god Augustus, Aulus Avillius 
Flaccus being praefect, Aulus Fulmius Crispus com- 
mander-in-chief, and Sarapion Trychambus com- 
mandant of the district ; those of the metropolis and 
of the Nome (erected) this pronaos (portico) to the 
very great goddess Aphrodite, and to the contemplar 
gods. (In the year 20) of Tiberius C^sar (in the 
21st of Athyr.y 

H 3 



102 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



I have no desire to appear learned by giving this 
inscription ; for I copied it word for word from Sir 
Gardner Wilkinson's "Modern Egypt and Thebes;" 
but I thought I might as well take notice of it, as it 
is interesting, and I really did see it on the portico 
of the temple, though, owing to its dilapidated con- 
dition, until I came to consult the above work, I was 
in delightful ignorance as to its meaning. On the 
ceiling of the pronaos^ or portico, is the zodiac, the 
fashion of which has mainly, with the help of the 
Greek inscription, served to establish the fact that 
this temple was built within the last 1800 years. 

Having satisfied myself as to the interior, I pro- 
ceeded to make a sketch of the exterior, and in this 
way passed a pleasant half-hour, deaf to the monoto- 
nous droning of many one-eyed children, "Buck- 
sheesh, ya Howadji," which signifies in English, 

Alms, O traveller ! " 

We lingered in the vicinity of the temple dedicated 
to fair Aphrodite till the sun sunk beneath the 
western sand-hills, and then we donkeyed back again 
to our boat in the moonlight, occasionally getting a 
shot at a jackal, as he stieaked across our path. 



THEBES. 



103 



CHAP. X. 

THEBES. 

In a broiling sun we furled our almost lifeless sails 
beneath the sycamore tree, known to all Nile 
travellers, which stands on the west bank of the 
river at Thebes, over against Luxor. 

Hardly had we made fast to the bank, before we 
discerned some six or eight men on horses, galloping 
towards us as hard as they could make their animals 
lay their legs to the ground, raising such clouds of 
dust as at intervals totally obscured them from view. 
I fancy this is generally about the first thing one 
sees on arriving at so frequented a place as Thebes. 
For ought we knew, they might have been robbers 
of the most desperate kind ; but before we had time 
to think of getting our guns down, they were upon 
us, and then they proved to be but poor Arabs, 
possessors of equally poor, wretched-looking horses, 
by the letting out of which to Frank travellers they 
managed to scrape a scanty livelihood. Selecting a 

H 4 



104 



EASTEEX EXPERIENCES 



couple of tlie best^ my friend and I mounted^ for the 
first tinie^ the high pommeled Turkish saddle ; and 
then^ with our feet dangling awkwardly in the large 
shovel stirrups^ we fled away with loose reins across 
the plain, in the direction of the Tombs of the Kings. 

As we approached the mountains, what little 
breeze had hitherto cooled our foreheads was entirely 
lost; and we were soon riding slowly among 
scorched and barren crags, which towered up on 
either side of us. The intense heat and silence which 
huns: over us in our ride throuc-h this " Valley of 
Death," fitted our minds most admirably for what we 
were about to inspect. Xot able to open oiu' eyes 
for the fierce sjlare around us, and hardlv darino^ to 
touch even the smooth coats of our horses, whilst the 
ceaseless chirp of the grasshopper, and the buz of the 
dragonfly, struck so painfully on the ear, that we 
went well nigh distracted, we continued our ride — 
anything but a pleasant one — till we arrived at the 
tomb, which has been named after its discoverer, 
Belzoni. 

Our first movement, on dismounting from our 
horses, was to seek some comparatively shady spot, 
whence, screened from the sun's fierceness, we could 
look about us a little, and thus form some notion of 
the locality, previously to descending into the bowels 



TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 



105 



of the earth. The valley in which we were, stretched 
far away on either side us, sending out branches in 
all directions. Never had I before^ nor have I since, 
been in a more scorched and barren spot. Not a 
blade or leaf of anything green helped to subdue the 
burning glare, which really seemed powerful enough, 
in a few years, to eat up the very bones which lay 
buried deep down in the tomb before whose mouth 
we were then standing. 

Whilst our Arab guides lighted the torches and 
filled the masshals*, preparatory to our descent, my 
friend and I stepped boldly back some two or three 
thousand years, and formed items in a vast Theban 
crowd collected in this very spot, to view the 
pageant that was conducting the ashes of Rameses 
the Great to this his last home. Could the sun that 
now hung over us be the same that then beat down 
on the heads of those old Egyptians ? Could this 
valley, that turned abruptly round yonder crag, be 
the same along which were often marshalled the vast 
hosts of the victorious monarch that here lay buried 
at our feet ? We had hazarded propositions easy of 
solution ; but how hard to realise the fact of our 

The masshal is a small iron cage fastened on to the end of 
a pole, which, when filled with blazing wood, forms a very large 
and very admirable torch. 



106 



EASTERN EXPEKIENCES. 



standing on such venerable ground! How would 
old Rameses have rubbed his eyes, and stared and 
stared again, could he have stepped up-stairs and con- 
fronted us, — my friend in a felt '^wide-awake/' 
gazing at the scene around him, through a lorgnette 
of DoUond's manufacture; whilst I, in a tweed 
shooting-coat, stood assisting the guides to light 
their torches with the aid of a burning glass ! 

By and by all was ready : so, bidding a tempo- 
rary adieu to the hot, barren mountains, and the 
blazing sun, we commenced our descent into the abode 
of death. Risking our necks by reason of attempting 
many and dangerous staircases, squeezing ourselves 
with difficulty along numerous narrow galleries, 
and almost periling our lives down deep descending 
shafts, always preceded by our Arab torch«bearers, 
the atmosphere becoming more stifling and obnoxious 
as we got lower, we at length stood on level ground, 
at a depth of 200 feet below the earth's surface. 

Here we had entered upon a new world. The 
day stole on, and still we lingered among the halls 
and corridors of Belzoni's Tomb, examining the 
frescoed walls, which told grandly, in thick dashes 
of crimson and blue, of an age gone, never to return 
' — the age of Rameses II. Sesostris the Great. 

The paintings in all the halls have reference, in 



EGYPTIAN SCULPTURES. 



ao7 



some way or another, to the entombed monarch — 
his origin, parentage, and mode of life, but, above 
all, to his deeds. In some cases the whole side of 
a chamber is devoted to depicting him at the head 
of his army, and sitting on his throne, receiving the 
tribute and worship of conquered hosts, who are 
represented as stretching far away as the eye can 
reach, out-numbering immensely his own victorious 
subjects. 

The more one sees of Egyptian sculptures the 
more amusement one learns to derive from the 
graphic way in which they sought to perpetuate 
among succeeding ages their own glorious selves. 
It seemed to me that the only method they knew 
of, by which they could represent power and import- 
ance, was by increasing the size of individuals to a 
most absurd ratio. For instance, they would draw 
the figure of a man ! and so long as that figure stood 
alone on the wall, he would be but a man, and no 
one in particular — perhaps merely a donkey-boy 
grown up : but sketch the figure of another man by 
his side, only infinitely smaller, — say that he should 
reach no higher than his knee, — and the first-drawn 
figure would at once be invested with all the rights 
and attributes of royalty ; he would at once rise 
from the subject to the king. Considering this, the 



108 



EASTEKN EXPERIENCES. 



only thing that excited my astonishment was^ that 
they should have been satisfied with so small an area^ 
as the limits of Belzoni's Tomb gave them, in order 
to do justice to the magnificence and power of the 
great Sesostris, to whom these w^alls are dedicated. 

But before I go further, I should like to give a 
brief description of the form and fashion of the Tomb 
whose subterranean mysteries I was then exploring ; 
nor can I do better than quote rather largely from 
Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 

Arrived at the entrance of Belzoni's Tomb, the 
traveller, armed with a torch, commences his descent 
into it by a steep and rugged staircase of 24 feet in 
perpendicular depth, on a horizontal length of 29 
feet. To this staircase succeeds a passage of 18^ 
feet by 9, at the end of which is a door ; and then 
a second staircase descends on a horizontal length of 
25 feet. Arrived at the bottom of this staircase, a 
double gateway is passed, opening on to a passage of 
29 feet, which brings him into an oblong chamber, 
12 feet by 14, supported by four columns, and con- 
taining a pit filled up by Belzoni, which once 
appeared to form the utmost limit of the Tomb. A 
hollow sound in the masonry, and a small aperture, 
are said to have betrayed the secret of its hidden 
chambers ; and the trunk of some neighbouring 



BAS-RELIEFS. 



109 



palm-tree being converted into a battering ram^ an 
entrance was forced into the succeeding hall, the 
splendour of which/^ says Sir Gardner, ^^at once 
astonished and delighted its discoverer, whose labours 
were so gratefully repaid." This hall is supported 
on two columns only ; nor are the paintings so 
gorgeous as in the preceding one, being almost all 
in an unfinished state, the sculptors not having yet 
commenced the outline of the figures vfhich the 
draughtsman had but just completed. 

In Egyptian bas-reliefs, the position of the figures 
was first decided by the artist, who traced his ideas 
roughly in red ; the draughtsman then carefully 
sketched the outlines in black, submitting them to 
the inspection of the former for correction, who 
altered, as appears in many cases here, those parts 
which he deemed deficient in proportion or correct- 
ness of attitude ; and in that state they were left for 
the chisel of the sculptor. But the death of the 
king, or some other cause, prevented in this instance 
their completion ; thus affording us in the nineteenth 
century a good opportunity of observing the above 
process. 

To this last hall succeed two passages and a 
chamber, 17 feet by 14, communicating by a door, 
nearly in the centre of the inner wall, with the 



110 



EASTERN EXPEEIE^XES. 



grand hall^ which is 27 feet square, and supported 
on six pillars, the upper end terminating in a 
vaulted saloon, 19 feet by 30; and here it was that 
the sarcophagus of the monarch stood, its position 
marked bv a mass of rubbish, mino^led with laro'e 
lumps of porphyry and the discoloured ligaments of 
of rifled mummies. 

And this is ever the lot of travellers. One leaves 
England, and, after consuming an immense deal of 
time and labour, arrives, as we did this morning, at 
the extreme hmit, say, of Belzoni's Tomb. If his 
imagination has enabled him, as he descended, to 
forget the present, and to mingle with the things 
and affairs of ao-es that have died awav, he will find 
that, torch in hand, he is now fast leaving the earth 
above him, and is on his way to lay a tribute of 
respect at the feet of the deceased Eameses, who 
lies down below in his marble sarcophagus, em- 
balmed and shrined in all the magnificence of his 
earthly career: — I sav, if his imas^ination will have 
enabled him, as it certainly enabled me, to do this, 
he will arrive at the vaulted saloon above mentioned, 
and, as he views but the heap of confusion before 
him, he will turn discontentedly away, the feeling 
nearest his heart being, that his pilgrimage has been 
all in vain. Perhaps the horrid fact will break less 



CONCERNING THE BONES OF RAMESES. Ill 



quickly upon him, and, turning to his guide, he will 
ask, Where are the remains of the Great King 
Rameses?" The reply that he will receive will 
surely then dispel all his treasured dreams of what 
might be. " Return, O Frank, to Europe, and to 
the lands of thy fathers ; gOj search the museums of 
London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, and there learn 
something of the last days of the Great King Se- 
sostris." To the same effect, but differently ex- 
pressed, would be the reply of one of the many 
English or Germans who spend their best days 
beneath the scorching heats of Theban suns, study- 
ing ancient Egyptian lore, till the reading of hiero- 
glyphics is made easy as their mother tongues : an 
answer to the query as to the remains of Rameses 
would doubtless by them be summed up in the 
few words of, " Bless your sweet innocence, any- 
where but in Egypt ! " 

The paintings in the grand hall are very fresh 
and brightly coloured. They almost all refer to 
the different states through which the deceased 
would pass on his way to final happiness, and in 
some instances to the mysteries of the Egyptian 
religion. 

After spending nearly the whole morning by 
torchlight, in the sepulchral retreats of Belzoni's 



112 



EASTERN EXPEPvIEXCES. 



Tomb^ we once more turned our faces earthwards^ 
and^ assisted by our Arab attendants^ managed to 
scramble up again into the world. 

AYe next visited the tomb named after its dis- 
coverer^ Bruce^ and sometimes called the ^* Harper's 
Tomb." It is dedicated to Rameses IIL^ and^ 
though not so large as the one already visited^ is 
generally thought to contain paintings of far greater 
interest^ as they refer mostly to the manners and 
customs of the ancient Egyptians^ the fashion of 
their fmmiture^ arms^ and implements of agriculture. 
The plan of it is precisely the same as of the one 
mentioned : so I forego its description. 

Leaving the valley of the Tombs of the Eangs^ 
our little cavalcade wound up the steep side of one 
of the neighbouring mountains. It was late in the 
afternoon when we reached the summit. The heat of 
the day was passed : and, halting a short time for the 
sake of our horses, we thoroughly enjoyed the glorious 
panorama that was spread out on all sides of us, 
comprising the whole plain of Thebes. ^Vith nothing 
to interrupt our view, we lifted our eyes from the 
crumbling glories of the Memnonium, immediately 
below us, to the com^t-yards and massive propylons 
of Medeenet Haboo on our extreme right; then, 
glancing across the great plain, we fell in with the 



THE PLAIN OF THEBES. 



113 



vocal Memnon and his colossal brother, sitting there 
in the same attitude, and with the same expression, 
a little more time-worn, on their giant faces, as when 
all the bustle and excitement of a great city sur- 
rounded them, instead of the solitudes over which 
they now keep watch. 

Leaving the colossi^ our eyes continued their flight 
eastwards, till they fell upon the Nile, and the little 
fleet of dahabiehs which lay moored beneath the 
columns of Luxor ■— the red ensigns of the English 
boats, and the French tricolours, fluttering amicably 
in the sunset breeze, whilst their several occupants 
stood afar off*, among the Tombs and Temples of the 
western mountains. By turning the head north- 
wards a little, and following the course marked out 
by the avenue of Sphinxes, which once extended all 
the way from Luxor, we passed beneath the tri- 
umphal arch, — a worthy preface ushering us mag- 
nificently to all the grandeur of Karnak. 

Our eyes having completed their little Theban 
tour, once more returned to the summit of the 
mountain, where we still stood; and then, as we 
prepared to descend, we threw a last glance over 
the scene before us — the whole of Thebes. It really 
is a great deal to say. What would not many a 
Londoner at this moment give, to ascend to the 

I 



114 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



cupola of St. Paul's, and thence to gaze upon the 
ruined Temples and prostrate columns of the great 
Thebes, extending for miles on either side of him ? 
Will the day ever come — but doubtless it has — 
when the Sunday excursionist from the smokes of 
London will be able to climb the heights of Hamp- 
stead, and thence, through the medium of a peep- 
show, delight himself with a glance at Egyptian 
wonders ? 

Thebes must indeed have been a glorious place, 
when, as some say, the colossi sat on their great 
thrones, looking down a broad highway, which 
stretched from their bases away to the obelisks 
and columns of Luxor, — when chariots rolled their 
wealthy occupants from the altars of Karnak to 
their villas and palaces on the banks of the Nile, — 
and when Theban swells " sipped sherbets beneath 
the shadow of the singing Memnon ! Perhaps they 
said then, as we say now, " Surely arts and sciences 
have come to a climax, they have at length attained 
their culminating points ; and we Egyptians are 
verily the greatest men on this earth " — Sic transit^ 
&c. Let time roll on, let a few thousand years 
intervene, and then what is to be seen where once 
stood the great Thebes ? nothing but poverty and 
desolation, — a half-starved, dirty population, who 



MEDEENET HABOO. 



115 



plaster their wretched little mud huts all over the 
still standing relics of their ancestors' glory, there 
live, and are satisfied. 

The sinking sun was already warning us to depart, 
when we found ourselves before the gateway that 
leads to the propylons of Medeenet Haboo; so 
that we had but little time to criticise a barbarous 
taste, which wrenched away the godlike faces that 
surmounted all the interior columns, laid puny 
cross-beams of red sandstone to support a roof, and 
converted one of the finest courtyards in Egypt 
into a Coptic place of worship. On a lotus-capital, 
belonging to some fallen column, my friend and I 
sat ; and as we watched the sun's fast-sinking splen- 
dour, glowing crimson among the halls and lofty 
arches of Medeenet Haboo — the dragoman filled and 
lighted our chibouques. 

The shades of evening drew rapidly around us, 
and still we sat and smoked — a queer kind of ho- 
mage to pay to Eameses III., to whom this temple 
is dedicate, and whose battles are still raging in 
relief along its walls. The sun bade us farewell at 
last, and in the moonlight we stumbled out again 
on to the plain, and, deafened by the croak of many 
frogs, retraced our steps back to the Nile, there to 



116 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



criticise Egyptian architecture over kebobs and 
pistachio nuts. 

A night's rest, and a swim in the river, once more 
fitted us for antiquarian researches. We ques- 
tioned Murray's Hand-book, the dragoman, and an 
Arab guide, possessed of but a very imperfect 
English education, and the reply was the same from 
each — Tombs." "What, Tombs again ! " said we. 
"Well be it so." And half an hour afterwards we 
lighted our torches at the entrance to the Assaseef. 

Never shall I forget the pungent odour which 
came forth to welcome us to the abode of Death. 
However, as we had long ago determined that, 
whilst we remained in Egypt, we would not be too 
particular in our fancies, we were soon exploring its 
recesses. We had got to some depth, with our 
pocket-handkerchiefs applied to our nasal organs, 
when the confined atmospliere, and the aforesaid 
essence of decayed mummies, became so very 
powerful, that not all the beckonings and gestures 
of our guides could induce us to go a step further ; 
so we beat a rapid retreat, and the sun's glare felt 
quite refreshing, when we stood once more within 
its influence. 

I had now had enough of Tombs — not so my 
friend ; so, whilst he went in search of more, I re- 



SOUTHWARDS. 



117 



mained beneath the protection of a cotton umbrella, 
to make a sketch of the Theban plain, from the 
heights of Dayr el Bahree. In the columned 
grove of the Memnonium we spent the sultry- 
hours of noon, lost in admiration at the excessive 
grace of its Osiride avenues, and the proportions of 
the huge statue of Rameses, which lies a disjointed 
and gigantic mass, amidst the ruin of his own palace. 

And now adieu to Thebes for awhile ; for our 
boat has once more shaken out her wings ; the reis 
and his Nubian crew have arisen from the torpid 
state in which they have been buried for the last 
day or two, and are singing, as we slip our moor- 
ings, and move lazily out into the stream ; and the 
Howadji, once more reclining on their divans, spread 
beneath the awning, indulge in dreams of the Cata- 
racts and the ever-distant south. 



I 3 



118 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. XI. 

ESXE. 

How shall I tell of Esne ? Shall I rhapsodise on 
its extensive and richly-stored bazaars, the luxuries 
of its well-appointed baths, and the magnificence of 
its Temple ? Or shall I torture myself by recalling 
to mind its creeping things innumerable, its crowds 
of naked and bucksheesh-v^hming children, and its 
mangy dogs? 

Gorgeous beyond description are the sculptures 
of the Esne Temple, consecrated to Kneph, the 
deity that presided over the ancient Latopolis, 
The traveller leaves the street cleared out by 
Mohammed Ali in 1842, and descends into it by a 
rough flight of steps. It possesses something of the 
form of the Temple at Denderah ; and from the 
Roman names which occur frequently on the por- 
tico, one is led to believe that it dates from about 
the same period. However large it may once have 



THE ESNE COFFEE SHOPS. 



119 



been^ all that is to be seen of it now is the grand 
hall^ supported by columns, whose beauty is not sur- 
passed in any Temple throughout the Nile valley. 
Each column is surmounted by a different capital ; 
and each capital is so perfectly beautiful, that it 
forms a study in itself. On the ceiling of the por- 
tico is a zodiac, similar to the one which I had seen 
at Denderah. 

But, for once during my Nile voyage, let me 
away with Temples and hieroglyphical speculations, 
and by moonlight, preceded by a fanoose-bearing 
Arab, let me leave my boat on the river, and, climb- 
ing up the steep bank, let me enter the nearest 
coffee-house : and there behold me sitting cross- 
legged — (I defy any European to look at a divan, 
without instantly detecting a tendency in his legs to 
curl up, and let him down as complete a Turk as 
ever stroked a beard) — on the low mud-built divan, 
which ran round the room. Coffee is handed, the 
gurgling nargileh is lighted, and, leaning back, I 
prepare myself to watch the mystic motions of two 
Grhawazee, who are sitting on the ground before 
me, smoking cigarettes, and toying with each other's 
head-dresses. At the further end of the room squat 
the orchestra, scraping harshly against the nerves of 
all present, as they tune their several instruments 

I 4 



120 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



for the coming dance. Fresh worshippers at the 
shrines of Mecca, and of pleasure, keep dropping 
in, — the more wealthy ones followed by their chi- 
bouque-gees," or pipe-bearers, — till at last the room 
is filled : and then comes a pause, which is at length 
broken by some old sheikh, leaning forward and 
exchanging a few words with the Ghawazee, who 
signal to the orchestra that all is ready. For some 
minutes all other sounds are swallowed up in the 
excruciating attempts at music," which are being 
made by our Moslem band, but which at length 
subside into a tremulous and plaintive measure. 

All this time the Ghawazee have been crouching 
on the floor, as if waiting for the moment of inspi- 
ration, which at length seems to fall upon one of 
them ; for, raising her head, and throwing back the 
long black tresses of her hair, she raises her arms ; 
then, chinking her castanets to the quivering time 
of the music, she slowly raises her body, till at last 
she stands erect before us. The music now streams 
forth in double volume ; the thunder of the tara- 
buka softens the sharp clatter of the castanets, 
which she is rattling over her head, as if to make 
them act as safety-valves for her rapidly increasing 
excitement. Raising her voice, she breaks forth 
into one of those wild Arab chants, so peculiar. 



GHAWAZEE DANCE. 



121 



and so difficult of imitation, and only to be sought 
and found among the palms that wave over the 
sweet waters of the Nile. With all the muscles of 
her body working to the time of the music, she 
moves slowly about the room, bending and twisting 
her lithe figure into all imaginable postures. 

Meanwhile, the other Ghawazee has been sitting 
motionless on the ground, but following with her 
large kohl-tinted eyes every movement of her sister. 
At last her time comes. Shaking her castanets, 
she also rises — the signal for the other to sink 
apparently exhausted on the divan. With hardly 
any variation, she repeats the same movements, 
and by and by is joined by the first Ghawazee, and 
then they dance together, singing in unison. At 
times they twine their arms round each other's 
waists, and then, suddenly bursting away, they fly 
far from each other ; quicker still they rattle their 
castanets, louder and more wild they sing ; the 
Moslem band outplays itself; even the Howadji 
are tempted to throw aside the nargileh^ and indulge 
in an Arabian dance : but nature can at last hold 
out no longer, and, breathless, the poor Ghawazee 
throw themselves on the divan, amid the ^^taibs" and 
bravissimas " of the assembly. 

We bid adieu to our entertainers ; and following 



122 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



our Arab boatman^ with his paper lantern, down to 
the river, are soon dreaming beneath our mosquito 
nets of Egyptian coryphees, and how that Mo- 
hammed Ali was wise, when he preferred their room 
to their company in Cairo. 

A curious race is the Ghawazee, dedicate from 
their youth to pleasure and the world. Quite dis- 
tinct from other Egyptians, they marry among 
themselves, seldom living long in one place; but, 
like the Bedouin of the desert, are ever on the 
wing, pitching their tents where most is going on. 
From time immemorial their love of the gorgeous" 
has been intense ; so that at last they have become 
wealthy, handing down from generation to genera- 
tion numberless richly-mounted head-dresses, heaps 
of gold and silver coin, ear-rings, and all manner of 
precious stones. 

I cannot bear witness to their extreme beauty as a 
race, though I certainly saw some that deserved to 
rank as belles among the fairest of the Egyptian 
fair; but the excessive elegance with which they all 
attire themselves renders presentable even those for 
whom dame Xature has but ill provided. 

There is not much variety in their mode of dancing ; 
it is ever the same easy, voluptuous motion, to which 
the feet play but a very secondary part — in fact, are 



THEIR STYLE OF DANCING. 



123 



never seen^ being always hidden in a perfect cloud of 
crimson silk. 

It is essentially dramatic^, and of course has refer- 
ence to love^ par excellence^ of a most impassioned 
kind. If there are two Ghawazee-, the one takes the 
part of the coy mistress^ whilst the other does her 
utmost to represent the ardent and often the frantic 
lover ; and in such characters they chase each other 
over every pattern of the carpet upon which they are 
dancing. 

So far all is very correct and proper ; but there is 
yet one other pas, which, as I believe it to be the 
peculiar property of the Egyptian Ghawazee, so I 
suppose she is peculiarly at home in; but as I am 
loth to outrage any English notion of propriety, I 
refrain from detail; suffice it that, nearly beside 
themselves with the fumes of arrack, supplied by a 
Mussulman audience, who certainly ought to know 
better, the Ghawazee disencumber themselves of all 
attire, in which alone they are graceful, and appear 
for the time in the same guise to which, in the days 
of Fauns and Satyrs, wood-nymphs were accustomed, 
before petticoats were invented. 

I remember hearing some Nile travellers criticising 
the Ghawazee, and pulling them to pieces on the 
score of their being so far removed from their stan- 



124 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



dard of a natural woman, in short, that they were 
such bundles of affectation" that they could not 
look upon them with any degree of pleasure. I 
thought their argument decidedly w^eak, inasmuch 
as the very fact of a woman forsaking the ordinary 
course of life prescribed to her by nature, that of a 
wife and the mother of a family, careful of her lord's 
affairs, and entering upon the profession of a danseuse, 
obliged her of necessity to affect all the peculiarities 
which went to make up the character she had under- 
taken, and which, being so wholly and entirely ficti- 
tious, was of course foreign to her nature. 

Doubtless the Ghawazee are affected, but, as they 
only affect to be Ghawazee, may be very charming 
nevertheless. 

Towards the close of Mohammed All's reign, the 
effect produced upon the good people of Cairo by their 
dissolute habits became so bad, that the old Pasha 
sent them all away to the Upper Country, bidding 
them cherish their beauty among the Esne palms, or 
crack their sweet voices 'mid the roar of the Nubian 
Cataracts. The Turkish grandees, who had been 
w^ont to sit beneath the Esbekeyah acacias, enjoying 
the dolce far niente of sunset hour through the 
long tube of a nargilehy and listening to the Ghawazee 
singing, then prayed to the Pasha for a commutation 



THE BANISHMENT OF THE GHAWAZEE. 125 

of the sentence, or else a quid pro quo. With 
regard to the Ghawazee, the Pasha was firm ; but, 
out of kindness to his subjects, he gave orders that a 
number of boys should be collected, who, imitating 
the Ghawazee in everything, — in costume, in voice, 
and even in the veiling of the face and the kohling 
of the eye and eyelash, — should frequent the coffee- 
houses of the Esbekeyah, and, by their singing, should 
somewhat atone for the banishment of the fair ones. 

Ever since that sentence of exile the glory of the 
Ghawazee has waned and faded, till during our visit 
the last stroke seems to have been given. 

The late viceroy Abbas Pasha, on a tour to the 
Upper Country, arrived at Esne. The inhabitants 
hearing of his approach, prepared to receive him with 
all honour. Deputations were formed, addresses were 
composed, and, if there had been a corporation, doubt- 
less a dinner would have been cooked ; among others, 
the Ghawazee, tired of their Esne homes, made ready 
an address, beseeching His Highness to reinstate 
them in their old Cairene haunts. 

So zealous were they in their own cause, and so 
eager were they to prove their loyalty to the Pasha, 
that they were the first to welcome him on his landing 
at Esne; and, as they lost no time in endeavouring to 
obtain an audience, their address was the first that 



126 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



the viceroy perused. But instead of looking on 
them with a kindlv eye^ the Pasha is said to have 
struck his forehead^ and to have expressed great dis- 
pleasure at the Ghawazee having been the first to 
meet him^ and should still further have had the pre- 
sumption to make such a request ; so he gave orders 
that they should all be dismissed from Esne, andj 
instead of returning to Cairo^ should be scattered 
over the furthest limits of Egypt. 

Twenty-four hours after, not a single Ghawazee 
was to be seen in Esne. 



IBRAHIM. 



127 



CHAP. XII. 

IBEAHIM. 

After having with some trouble collected all our 
crew, we were on the point of setting sail with a fa- 
vourable breeze from Esne, when we discovered that 
Ibrahim was missing. Being as it was slightly out of 
temper at losing so much of the morning breeze, we 
became still more so when, after waiting a full half- 
hour, we perceived him a long way off, approaching 
us in the most leisurely manner, chatting as he walked 
with one of his many Esne friends. Shouting to 
him, he at length accelerated his pace, and finally 
jumped from the bank on to the deck, as we moved 
off. He received his rowing very impatiently ; and 
as he seemed to be brimful of some capital excuse, we 
asked him what he had to say for himself. This 
very bad thing of the gentlemen to make quarrel 
with me." But why ? " said we. " Because I only 
just been to take the bath ; this the very clean thing, 
you know this very well, sir." 



128 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



As were upon the subject of cleanliness^ washing, 
&c., we thought we would ask him a few more ques- 
tions: so we said^ — 

" We didn't know you were so fond of washing, 
Ibrahim ? " 

Ib. Oh, this very good thing to wash some- 
times." 

Capt. p. Sometimes ! but don't you wash very 
often?" 

Ib. {icith a vacant stare) I not know what you 
mean, sir." 

Capt. P. " Why, don't you wash every day ? " 

Ib. Wash every day, sir ! Why, I should 
have to take off my clothes every day ! " 

Capt. P. " And when did you last take off your 
clothes ? " 

Ib. I forget, sir." 

Capt. P. Then you forget when you last 
washed ? " 

Ib. Yes, sir." 

Of course we did not waste any more time upon 
Ibrahim; and I must confess that, dirty as I had 
considered all Arabs to be, I did not suppose that a 
well-dressed, and, to all appearances, a respectable 
member of Egyptian society, such as we had taken 
Ibrahim to be, would have unblushingly pleaded 



EXPLOSION WITH IBRAHIM. 



129 



guilty ^^to forgetting the last time that he either 
removed his clothes^ or performed his ablutions." 

This last little conversation with our dragoman, 
when added to the long list of his countless acts of 
stupidity committed during his residence in our boat, 
made us think such excessively small things " of 
him, that we began to feel that really we might get 
on quite as well without him, barring the matter of 
interpreting ; for as yet we had not taken the trouble 
to learn a word of Arabic. The day after leaving 
Esne, Ifelt sure that Ibrahim ^^got out on the wrong 
side of his bed," or he put the hot end of his cigar 
in his mouth, or he did something so very peculiar, 
that his behaviour towards us became so more than 
usually cantankerous," that we both felt it would 
be but kind to hint at the possibility of our dispensing 
with his services at the next town. Instead of pro- 
fiting by these hints, he became very impertinent ; 
so, in order to support our dignity before the other 
Arabs in the boat, we brought matters to a crisis by 
saying, See here, Ibrahim, if you don't choose to 
conduct yourself properly as our servant, we'll turn 
you out of our boat at Edfoo " (that being the next 
town, about three miles ahead). This settled the 
business : He was not going to be treated in that 
manner by dogs of Christians," &c. &c. So down 

K 



130 



EASTERN EXPEKIENCES. 



he went into the hold of the boat, swearing terribly ; 
and, after colossal exertions, to the great amusement 
of the crew, he managed to dislocate his trunk from 
among the canteens and lumber, and, lugging it up 
on to the deck, he took off his tarboosh, wiped his 
face, and sat down upon it, saying, that He had 
made up his mind he would leave us at the next 
town." 

As he was still in our service, and I particularly 
wanted my chibouque refilled a few minutes after 
this explosion, I handed it over to him with an 
appropriate request, but was quite startled with the 
burst of anger with which he received it. Fill 
your pipe ! I am not your servant any more ! fill it 
yourself! " 

This brought matters to a point sooner than we 
had intended, and I confess that all my equanimity 
was for the time upset ; for the next moment saw me 
grasping Ibrahim by the collar and shaking his head 
backwards and forwards violently. Bidding the 
reis steer for the bank, we told Ibrahim either to fill 
the chibouque or get out of the boat there and then, 
instead of waiting till we reached the next town. 

Now, though I had acted throughout as if it was 
all one to me whether Ibrahim stopped with us or not, 
still in my own heart I had conceived that it would 



IBRAHIM LEAVES US. 



131 



be a great nuisance to perform the rest of our voyage 
minus a dragoman. This being the state of my 
feelings, my grief and vexation may be more easily 
imagined than described, when Ibrahim, our drago-- 
man^ our interpreter^ our flunkey ^ our sole turnpike 
to all Moslem joys, there and then obeyed the order, 
and left us, five hundred miles up the country, 
surrounded with every species of Arab knavery and 
ferocity, and unable to speak a word of the lan- 
guage. 

Maintenant^'^ as our light-hearted neighbours 
always say, voila un fait accomplL^'^ Good-by, 
friend Ibrahim; we watch you as our boat again 
stands out into the stream ; and as we float idly up 
with the sunset breeze towards Edfoo, we every 
now and then turn to look at the spot where you 
deserted us, and see you sitting on your trunk of 
Beyrout workmanship*, your head on your hands, 
doubtless wondering whether it is possible you have 
made a fool of yourself. 

However, it was all very well to make a joke of 
it ; but we really had placed ourselves in a very 

* I never yet met with a dragoman that did not possess one 
of those gaily-painted trunks, made at Beyrout, and which ring 
a small alarum whenever they are opened. 

K 2 



132 



EASTEPvN EXPEKIEXCES. 



awkward position. Fortunately, we had a German 
Grammar on board, which professed to give all its 
students an extensive insight into the mysteries of 
the Arabic language ; so that this evening, after 
dinner, instead of thinking all imaginable pretty 
things about the broad moonlight, or the poetry of 
Oriental nights, we set ourselves to work to try and 
understand Mr. ISTolden (the author of the afore- 
said Grammar); and long after our Nubian crew 
had dropped from singing into sleep, my friend and 
I sat in the cabin catechising and sounding each 
other's newly acquired proficiency in the Arab tongue. 
It was terribly up-hill work at first ; but, by dint 
of perseverance, we managed, about midnight, to 
make the black cook comprehend that we wished to 
have our beds made up : and I am quite sure that 
the off-hand and masterly manner in which we bade 
each other Good night," in a hitherto most myste- 
rious language, tended very considerably towards the 
good seven hours' sleep that followed^ beneath the 
mosquito curtains. 

The first feeling that I was conscious of the next 
morning was that of intense desolation. There was 
no Ibrahim to clean my boots, or fill my bath : I 
had to make my bed myself, and shake out the 
mattresses on deck, beneath a baking sun. Then 



SFFOETS TO DO WITHOUT A DEAGOMAN. 133 



followed a bitter altercation with the cook, as to 
what we would have for breakfast. We wished to 
have the legs of yesterday's turkey devilled ; " but 
could not make an approach in Arabic to either 

fried/' or cayenne pepper," 

However, in proportion as my spirits fell, those of 
my friend rose. Like Mark Tapley of old, he 
seemed to think that, if ever there were circumstances 
in which it was creditable for a man to be jolly, 
they were the present : so, instead of lamenting over 
the fact of having to sweep out the cabin himself, 
he lit a weed," and backed himself to handle a 
broom with far greater dexterity than I. In this 
sun-shiny light he looked at all our little troubles ; 
and before sunset I also was enabled to feel toler- 
ably independent of dragomen — at least so far as 
manual labour was concerned. But then there was 
the " talking : " of course this was the most serious 
part of all, and a wretched mess we made of it for 
the first week. Still, as we had made up our minds 
to be quit of Ibrahim, we were obliged to look even 
this difficulty boldly in the face. 

Being now brought into closer relationship with 
our black cook, — for Ibrahim had always acted as 
a sort of medium between the cabin and the kitchen, 
— we found him to be an uncommonly quick, clever 

K 3 



134 



EASTEBN EXPERIENCES. 



fellow ; in fact, so clever, that when not another 
man in the boat could make head or tail of our 
curiously-formed, badly-pronounced Arabic sen- 
tences, he understood directly, and then explained 
our meaning to the crew ; so that, though he knew 
not a word of English, he took upon himself all the 
interpreting duties of a dragoman. 

Malgre all our tiffs with Ibrahim, and struggles 
to do without him, we still proceeded slowly but 
sm'ely on our Nile voyage. We had sketched the 
magnificent propylons of the Edfoo Temple, and 
had become familiar with the god Hor-Hat's," or 
" Agathodaemon's " way of holding his right arm ; 
also, that Hor-senet-to " was son to Hor-Hat ; " 
and that these two, with Horus," formed the triad 
worshipped in this city. Then, shaking off hierogly- 
phical fetters, we had indulged in morning rambles 
among the quarried galleries of Hagar-Silsileh ; Vvx 
had looked upon the ruins of Com-Ombo by moon- 
light ; and on the 26th of January, a few hours after 
sunset, we drove, with a fresh breeze aft, high on 
to the sandy bank of Assouan, the ancient Syene, 
securing a berth among the little fleet of European 
boats all moored there preparatory to ascending the 
much-talked-of Cataracts. 

On awaking, and putting our heads out of the 



IBEAHIM IMPLORES TO BE REINSTATED. 135 

cabin windows the next morning after arriving, what 
was our astonishment at beholding the Signer 
Ibrahim, whom we had left quietly seated on his 
trunk some sixty odd miles astern, here at Assouan, 
by the side of our boat, chatting with the crew as if 
nothing had happened. How on earth the fellow 
had managed to anticipate us, and be here to receive 
us, we were at a loss to determine. At first we were 
almost inclined to doubt the fact of his identity; 
but when we had dressed, and were able to make a 
closer observation of him, and we found him sprawl- 
ing in the dust at our feet, imploring to be taken 
back again, there was no longer any question as to 
who it was. Of course we were deaf to all entreaties ; 
we were resolved to do without him, if only to prove 
to the dragomanic world that they were not the 

indispensable accompaniments " that they fancied 
themselves to be. 

When, at last, Ibrahim saw we were in earnest, 
and that all hopes of ever being received back had 
vanished, he was in a terrible fright, and he came to 
us, ^^as one brother cometh to another," to ask us what 
he was to do ? We told him that he had better take 
passage in the first grain-boat passing down, and so 
restore his valuable self to the bosom of his family in 
Cairo as soon as possible. But, to our surprise, he 

K 4 



136 



EASTESN EXPEKIENCES. 



said, " O Howadji, this very easy thing to say ; I 
know this very easy thing to get a passage to Cairo : 
but I not like to go and kiss nay wife and children, 
lest, whilst I am in the Bazaar, the kawass from the 
Pasha will take me, and give me bastinado; and, O 
sirs, this very bad thing, this bastinado ; this just 
like a man in the sun without his turban ! " 

On putting further questions to him, and to the 
dragomen of some other boats, who were standing 
round, we gathered the following, viz. : — 

That when a man wished to act as a dragoman, 
he had to procure a license of some kind from the 
Egyptian Government, and a note was made of his 
name, parentage, and all about him: the moment that 
he was engaged by any traveller, he was obliged to 
go and report himself as about to leave Cairo, on 
such a day, in the capacity of dragoman to such a 
traveller, giving the traveller's name, &c. He was 
thus in a manner made responsible for the safety of 
his master ; and he was further obliged, on returning 
from his voyage, to go and report himself as having 
performed his duty, and ready for fresh employment. 

" Again, that as the Consulate, for whatever 
nation the traveller happened to be, was responsible 
for the good conduct of the said traveller, and a 
correspondence between that Consulate and the 



ibhahim's day dreams, 137 

Egyptian Government was constantly kept up ; so, 
in one way or another, a most perfect check was 
kept upon the movements of both voyageur and dra- 
goman. On the other hand, if either failed in his 
duty, he was answerable, the one to his Consulate, 
the other to his Government." 

Now, as Ibrahim was in full possession of all these 
little forms, and seeing that he was very doubtful as 
to the correctness of his late actions, he was naturally 
a little anxious concerning the mode of his reception, 
on arrival in Cairo. Doubtless a sort of bastinado 
nightmare was ever running wild in his brain. He 
pictured himself landing at Boulak, and stealing 
unnoticed among the acacias, which line the 
road into Cairo, till he arrived at the gates of the 
city ; these he passed in safety, mingling with a 
stream of pilgrims and heavily-laden camels : then 
he fancied himself exposed to all the scrutiny of the 
crowded bazaars ; but, passing these unrecognised, 
he approached his home by round-about and unfre- 
quented ways, till he even reached the entrance to 
the dark street in which he lived. Fancying himself 
unobserved, he was on the point of running, when, 
beneath the shadow of a gateway hard by, he caught 
sight of the red jacket of the much-dreaded kawass. 
In a moment his heart sank into the calves of his 



138 



EASTERN EXPEKIEXCES. 



legs. He attempted to start forward^ but his boots 
were of lead ; the kawass was coming down on him 
rapidly^ flourishing the order for his custody. His 
house was but a few yards further^ and abeady were 
the kohl-tinted eyes of his better-half smiling sweetly 
from the carved wood lattice, on her returning lord. 
He tried to run faster^ but he caught his foot, and 
would have fallen, had he not been arrested by the 
firm grip of his enemy. The finale to his day-dreams 
was always the same ; he saw himself overwhelmed 
in a perfect tornado of bastinado-ings, the whole 
atmosphere teeming with kawasses of every shade of 
ferocity. 

After bestowing as much sympathy as we could 
screw out of our hearts, at so short a notice, on our 
quondam-servant, he told us that there was only one 
way of escape for him, viz. — that if we would draw 
out on paper a declaration to the effect that he (Ibra- 
him) had made a full confession of all his crimes, had 
promised to be better for the future, and that he had 
gone down on his knees to be taken back again, yet, 
in the face of all this, we had refused, thinking we 
could do very well without him ; and that if we 
would have the kindness to append our signatures to 
this document in the presence of the most just" the 
Cadi of Assouan, and would in the end present him 



THE CADI OF ASSOUAN. 



139 



(Ibrahim) with it, all would be right. Of course, to 
all this we gave our ready assent ; and having drawn 
up the declaration, away we all went, dragoman, 
boatmen, reises, second reises, a host of small 
Egyptians, and semi-nude Nubians — and in fact the 
whole population of Syene, who had by degrees 
collected round our boat to know what was up — = 
away we all went to the Cadi. 

Beneath a heavily foliaged acacia outside his house, 
and sipping his morning coffee from a silver fingaUj 
reposed the most potent the Cadi of Assouan. 
Grouped gracefuUy around him, stood his numerous 
pipe-bearers and sherbet-mixers. As we approached, 
the old man rose, and, standing bare-footed on his 
carpet, made his most respectful salaams, not to us — 
but to our pockets. We could see it at a glance ; 
we knew that if justice was to be had, we should 
have it ; and we admired him for it. He motioned 
us to the divan on his right ; the prospect of some 
dollars made him smile sweetly upon us — so he 
ordered pipes and coffee. Then came a pause, 
during which we puffed away in silence, and the 
w^hole of Assouan squatted on their haunches, to 
watch the proceedings. 

After a few modest compliments, to the effect that 
my friend and I looked like two full moons on a 



140 



EASTEEX EXPEPaEXCES. 



clear night, and that he looked far more splendid, 
and was more to be feared than the sun in its meri- 
dian heat, we proceeded to business. Ibrahim led 
off with the ace of trumps : " throwing himself on 
his face, he rubbed his nose in the dust, beneath the 
feet of the Cadi, and addressed him as the ancestor 
of as yet some unborn Egyptian viceroy. We felt that 
we had lost a trick — but then there were the dollars. 
In a burst of eloquence Ibrahim told his story ; how 
that he had left all he held dear in Cairo, and 
had wandered far from home in our service; how 
that his only thought had been for our good ; how 
that, notwithstanding all his efforts to please, he had 
met with nothing but abuse, till at last his wretched 
brain had well-nigh given way ; and how that, when 
we had brought him to the last stage of misery, we 
had kicked him savagely from our boat, lea^dng him 
with his trimk in a wild spot, to be robbed and 
murdered by the first passer-by ; and how that, if 
Allah, in his goodness, had not taken care of him, he 
would not have been there to tell his tale of woe. 

His melancholy narrative caused quite a sensation : 
the whole of Assouan groaned, and voted us brutes. 
Even the Cadi for a moment seemed to forget the 
dollars, and to sympathise with Ibrahim, who stood 
like a sorrowing Rachel before him — his turban 



THE cadi's sentence. 



141 



torn from his head in the excess of his grief — his 
long horse-tail of hair streaming down his back^ 
giving him the appearance of a wild Indian, in a 
Damascus sash and baggy breeches. Even we felt 
disposed to say, Well, well, we didn't mean to use 
you so badly as, it seems, we have done." 

But before either the Cadi, or we, had time to 
give way to our feelings, there rose up one, Antonio, 
a Greek, dragoman to our Polish friends, a man 
cunning in speech, and of many and subtle argu- 
ments. In a short and pithy harangue, he completely 
engaged the hearts of all present in our favour; 
declared he had known Ibrahim from a boy; how 
that he was a rascal, and an excessively stupid one ; 
how that he loved " hasheesh " better than his 
master's interests ; how that we had taken all his 
stupidity and insolence, till we could take them no 
longer ; and then, with a well-timed allusion to the 
fact of such nice gentlemen as we were, " with such 
lots of dollars," being exposed to all the annoyance 
that Ibrahim gave us, he left us in the hands of the 
good Cadi. 

As might have been expected, the amiable 
Egyptian magistrate wanted to administer a small 
quantum of bastinado on the spot, and to write a 
letter to the Cadi in Cairo, with a request that the 



142 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



dose might be repeated as soon as Ibrahim landed in 
his native city. This^ howe ver, we would not allow : 
it was enough for us to know that the dismissal from 
our service was approved of — and^ this point settled, 
we proposed to give him the paper already spoken 
of, by the signing of which all future punishment on 
our account would be prevented. When it became 
known to the crowd, that two Christians were 
capable of such leniency, great was the applause that 
we elicited ; and after taking leave of the Cadi, with 
the usual fees, we retired to our boat amid loud cries 
of — Long live the two howling Christian dogs, 
who have interceded for a Mussulman that deserves 
the bastinado ! " 



THE CATAKACTS. 



143 



CHAR XIIL 

THE CATARACTS. 

And now behold us arrived at the furthest extremes 
of the land of Egypt, moored to the bank beneath 
the palms of Assouan. No sooner was it noised 
about that we intended to ascend the Cataracts, and 
to push our flight still southward among the Nubian 
Temples, than all our happiness for the space of 
twenty-four hours was gone. From sunrise to sunset 
were we engaged in conferences and quarrels with 
every species of the human race — each one proving, 
beyond a doubt, whenever he could get our ear, that 
he, and he only, was the " Rapid Sheikh," the 
" Cataract Captain," by whose all-potent influence 
we were at length to float in peace 'mid Nubian 
solitudes. 

Deprived, though by our own will, yet still de- 
prived of dragomanic powers, and possessed of but a 
few Arabic sentences, my friend and I lay on our 
divans beneath the awning, and wondered what we 



144 



EASTEPvX EXPERIEXCES. 



should do. Findino; that vre neither could suo:2:est 
anything^ ^Ye clapped our hands for our pipes, and, 
after blowing three or four furious clouds of Latakia, 
^Ye looked at each other through the smoke, and 
wondered still. 

We knew that there was only one Sheikh of the 
Cataracts, and yet here were four — each suiTounded 
with his numerous naked satellites, sitting before us 
on the deck of our boat, sipping our coffee and 
smoking our chibouques — each one swearing by his 
turban that he only was the " Simon pure.'' If one 
had been better dressed than the other, or had had 
more servants round him, it would have been an 
easy matter enough; we should have chosen him, 
nor would our conclusion have been questioned for 
a moment in the mind of an Eastern. But here 
they were, all four arrayed in an equally gorgeous 
manner, not a whit was one man's turban better 
than another's, and each could show the same 
number of body-guard : — so we smoked and puffed, 
and puffed and smoked, and still lay on our divans 
wondering. 

And so the morning passed^ tiU noon arrived, and 
it became so hot, even under the awning, that we 
could bear it no longer : so we kicked the four great 



WANTED — THE CATARACT CAPTAIN,'' 145 

sheikhs out of our boat^ and said we should return 
to Cairo^ instead of mounting the rapids. 

Left once more to ourselves^ we retired to the 
cabin^ and sent for the reis. With the help of a 
dictionary^ and a book entitled " Arabic made easy/' 
we held a debate as to the course we should pursue. 
Our anger was a little roused by the reis telling us^ 
with a knowing smile^ that we had done right in re- 
fusing to have anything to do with our four morning 
visitors^ for that neither of them was the real sheikh. 
And yet he had sat by all the time^ a calm witness 
to our dilemma, without telling us this before. How- 
ever, we contented ourselves with telling him in 
English that he was a blockhead, and then asked 
him in Arabic, if he knew where to find the 
sheikh ? 

Lowering his voice to a whisper, and coming close 
to us, to make his information of greater apparent 
value, he said, O Howadji, give heed unto the 
words that I am about to utter ! During forty 
years has Allah, in his goodness, permitted me to 
drink of the waters of the Nile, and during the half 
of that period have I steered boats in safety between 
its banks; therefore, O traveller, believe that I 
know all about this matter. The true and only 
sheikh of the Cataracts lives in his own village of 

L 



146 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



Mahratta in Xubia^ about t^YO hours* journey from 
Assouan — a man witH a beard like Mahomet's, and 
possessed of many pipes and sherbet bowls. If the 
Howadji please, I will put on my whitest turban, 
and will go this day to visit him in his house ; and 
there, telling him that two English Howadji are 
waiting to pass the Cataracts, he will return with me, 
and will make the price here for his assistance ; and 
then the Howadji will get to Xubia very quickly, 
and will ^ive their servant the reis orood bucksheesli 
for what he has done." 

Drowning men will catch at a straw;" so we 
caught at the proposition of our reis, and bundled 
him off on the spot to oMahi^atta, himself and turban 
balancing themselves with difficulty on the stagger- 
ing hind-quarters of a very second-rate Jerusalem 
pony. 

While sit in the blue cabin, awaiting for the 
sheikh, let us look in one of the many books that 
line our shelves, and learn something of Assouan, the 
ancient Syene. 

Of the old town there is very little remaining, 
save a few granite columns of quite a late date, and 
a dilapidated portico, upon which the names of isero 
and Domitian occur. Syene formed the boundary 
fortress to the Roman dominions in Egypt, though 



ISLE OF ELEPHANTINE. 



147 



they always looked upon Lower Ethiopia as be- 
longing to them. 

Opposite to the modern town of Assouan^ or 
Eswan, is the island of Elephantine. Here also 
stood a Roman fortress and buildings^ it is said, of 
equal grandeur and extent to those at Philge, but of 
which no traces remain, A granite gateway of the 
time of Alexander, standing not far from the water's 
edge, would seem to have once served as the 
entrance to some edifice now entirely destroyed ; 
and very near to it is a mutilated statue of red 
granite. 

The south part of the island is covered with the 
ruins of old houses and pottery fragments, upon 
many of which are still to be traced Greek inscrip- 
tions in a running hand. Nor will the traveller 
wander long among the palms and underwood of 
Elephantine without encountering sundry one-eyed 
children, who, leaving their goats to stray where 
they will, come to offer all sorts of antiquities for 
sale — small bronzes of rams, coins, &c. 

But, apart from all traces of dead Psamiticus and 
by-gone Roman days, Syene is clothed with an 
interest which had been growing daily more awful 
in our minds since leaving Cairo. 

All the v/ay from Boulak, we bad read, talked, 

L 2 

I 



148 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



and sung of the Nubian Cataracts. As we sailed 
up the river we had watched from day to day the 
Arabian mountains, which rose afiir off in the east 
and in the west, silent monarchs of their own desert 
solitudes, at first so distant as to be hardly dis- 
cernible through the thick air of noon, but daily 
approaching nearer to the river as we went on our 
voyage. At Osioot they were within a ride ; at 
Thebes they almost shook hands with us ; still on 
we went, and still the great barren mountains came 
closer and closer, till at Assouan they met — and 
then came the struo-o-le. 

The great Nile, which had rolled with increasing 
volume hundreds of miles down from Abyssinian 
heio:hts, seemed to lauo-h at the thouo-ht of beino; 
checked in its onward course here at Assouan ; and 
with a roar which it has kept up for ages without 
cessation, it threw itself wildly against the dark 
sides of the mountains of Arabia. No doubt, in 
times gone by, times which would have been looked 
upon by the great Kameses as ancient, the battle 
was a fierce one ; but the river was not to be 
beaten, and it forced for itself a passage to the sea. 
The mountains, obliged to give in, would seem to 
have set their faces against its entering Egypt calmly 
and serenely ; and, if the Howadji choose, he may 



VIEW FKOM MAHRATTA. 



149 



donkey quietly to Mahratta, and thence view the 
great river sweeping swiftly round the isle of Philse, 
and go leaping madly^ like the rush of disordered 
cavalry, among the black piles of porphyry and 
shattered crags, which lie heaped about in wild 
confusion nearly all the way to Syene. 

Curious to know something of the dangers that 
we were shortly to face, my friend and I one sunny 
morning, during our sojourn at Assouan- — for this 

Kapid-mounting " we found to be anything but 
what the phrase would lead one to understand — 
donkeyed pleasantly from among the ruins of Syene, 
and, passing many picturesque sheikh tombs, we 
rode across the intervening desert to Mahratta, 
Here, leaving our animals and their attendants, we 
climbed to the summit of the loftiest rock, and 
gazed in mute astonishment upon the chaotic scene 
around us. Looking southward, we followed the 
course of the river, and saw it afar off among Nubian 
reaches come rolling swiftly but silently to the fray. 
At Philae it seemed to scent the battle, and gave 
forth its roar of defiance. Round the base of the 
crag on which we stood, it came rushing with 
fearful velocity; and then, for one short moment, 
as if to collect all its force, it paused, hanging on the 
verge of the slope— but it was only momentary; 

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150 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



for in the next minute we saw it go leaping and 
tumbling among the rocks^ which strove in vain to 
check its will. Lost now to our view among the 
mountains^ we descended again into Mahratta, and 
were soon donkey ing back across the desert — at 
intervals^ the savage but distant roar of the Cata- 
ract breaking upon the soKtiJides among which we 
rode. 

But all this time I have left untold the result of 
our reis's expedition to Mahratta^ in search of the 
"reap' sheikh. As we had been led to hope, his 
mission in his best turban proved successful ; for he 
returned that same evening to Assouan, accompanied 
by a venerable old man, whom he introduced to us 
as "the true and only sheikh of the Cataracts." 
The lanterns were lighted and hung beneath the 
awning, our brightest carpet was spread upon the 
deck, coffee was handed, chibouques were brought, 
and, whilst the pure stars of Egypt looked down 
upon us, we settled (in anticipation) the business of 
the Cataracts. 

Without entering into the particulars of an agree- 
ment which took an hour to draw up, and which 
might with ease have been done in five minutes, I 
shall cut the matter short by saying, that everything 
was arranged most satisfactorily in whispers and 



BUSINESS OF THE CATARACTS IB SETTLED. 151 

short sentences^ clouds of Latakia throwing a de- 
lightful mystery over the whole ! 

"We were to start the first thing in the morning; 
we were to " . . . here the old man's voice dropped 
so low that we were obliged to bend forward to 
listen — "we were to pass the Cataracts in" » , , . 
here again we lost his words — "in" .... we 
slipped two dollars into his hand — "in one day." 
The reis laughed and said "Taib/' all the crew 
laughed and said " Taib " in unison^ and from out 
our very hearts we laughed and said, " Good ! " 



L 4 



152 



EASTERN EXPEEIEXCES. 



CHAP. XIV. 

PHIL^. 

As the commencement of the Rapids was distant 
some three or four miles from Assouan, and we ex- 
pected a great deal of time would be wasted in 
getting there, we rose with the first streak of day- 
light, and leaving directions with the reis not to 
ascend them without us, and that we would meet 
him at the first '^gate," as the several fails are termed, 
we rode off to Phil^e, intending to saunter about 
among its ruined temples till noon. 

Warmly and cheerfully streamed the sun's morn- 
ing rays, as we donkeyed over the desert to Philae. 
Philse, beautiful, as its name imports, is an island 
above the Cataracts, its only inhabitants some grace- 
ful temples, standing almost entire 'mid forests of 
erect and prostrate columns. From the mainland 
we were ferried across by some naked Nubian boys 
in a doubtful old tub, meant to represent a boat. 



ISLE OF PHIL^E, 



153 



Bidding them await our return^ we pushed our way 
from the water's edge up the steep bank^ through 
the thick brush-wood and flov/ering lupins^ which 
grew luxuriantly beneath the overhanging palms. 
The surface of the island is a mass of ruins^ and 
chiefly are they dedicated to Isis. The sculptures 
on the principal building have reference to the birth 
of HoruSj who^ with his parents^ Isis and Osiris^ 
formed the triad worshipped at Philse. 

Standing on the summit of one of the temple's 
lofty propylons^ and gazing down into the river as it 
rushed swiftly and deeply by towards the Cataracts^ 
we were pleased in recalling the tradition that 
tells of the battle between Osiris and the great 
Typhoo, and how that Osiris, being vanquished, 
lies buried in the Cataract, giving rise to the 
Egyptian oath, By him who sleeps in Phil^." 

The traveller will do well to linger lono; amono; 
the temples and flowers of Philae. If he is a 
draughtsman, he will wander among its court-yards, 
palms, and columns, hour after hour, in sweet be- 
wilderment, not knowing what most to admire — all 
is so very beautiful. It was with almost sad hearts 
that we, towards noon, once more entered the boat 
that had brought us, and were ferried back to 
Mahratta, in order to rejoin our Dahabieh ; but we 



154 



EASTEBN EXPEEIENCES. 



solaced ourselves with the hope of spending another 
morning there^ on our return from Nubia. 

Half-an-hour's donkey-riding brought us to the 
first gate/' as it is called^ of the Cataract. Here 
we found our boat^ as had been agreed^ waiting for 
us. Trusting we had not delayed them by lingering 
too long at Phite^ we made haste to go on board, 
fondly hoping that we should at once commence 
ascending the rapids ; but, to our surprise, we 
found that the most noble the "real sheikh" had 
gone off home, with all his men — nor did they pro- 
pose returning till the morrow. In anger we sent 
for the reis, and in the Arabic tongue furiously, but 
sadly incorrectly, addressed him, " Moosh taib ya 
Reis, why are we not struggling up the Cataract, 
instead of lying moored at its foot ? " " Let not the 
Frank's anger grow hot," answered the reis ; " for it 
is not the fault of his servant, but the will of Allah. 
We left Assouan this morning in time to have been 
sailing among the Nubian mountains by sun-set ; 
but the boat must have been afflicted with the ^evU 
eve/ for sailing first against this rock, and then 
a2:ainst that rock, and sometimes stickins^ fast al- 
together, it has come to pass that we have arrived 
at the first ^ gate ' all too late to go up to-day : but 
let the Frank eat his dinner, smoke his pipe, and go 



THE FIRST GATE " IS PASSED. 155 

to bed^ and on the morrow he shall ascend the 
Cataracts faster and better than did ever Frank 
before." Making a virtue of necessity^ we told the 
reis that^ considering the circumstances of the case^ 
we would eat our dinner and smoke our pipes this 
evening contentedly ; but that we should certainly 
expect to clear the Cataracts on the morrow. 

With the first dawn of day, down came the old 
sheikh and his servants, to the number of about a 
hundred, all smiles and morning salaams. For- 
tunately for us, a favourable wind had sprung up 
during the night, and had gone on increasing, till, 
by sun-rise, it blew great guns, Y>^hich, as we were 
to ascend by sheer force, proved of no small as- 
sistance to us. 

Before proceeding to work, the sheikh mounted 
to the top of our cabin, and thence addressed his 
men to the effect of their showing a couple of 
Franks how they could handle a boat up a rapid, 
and by their efforts to prove themselves and him 
worthy of an enormous bucksheesh^ &c. With a 
loud shout of applause, the hundred black satellites 
pitched off their kaftans, or loose blue shirts, and in 
a state of nature jumped forthwith into the foaming 
waters. Holding two long ropes — attached to either 
side of the boat, — half of them, by dint of prodigious 



156 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



eJffbrts, gained a rock on one side of the fall, whilst 
the other half did the same, gaining a rock on the 
other side. With difficulty setting our sails in the 
gale that was blowing, we now loosed from the 
bank ; nor did ever man, on a thorough-bred Eng- 
lish hunter, charge an Oxfordshire stone wall, 
with greater pluck and meaning, than did we in 
our Nile boat the first " gate " of the Nubian Ca- 
taracts. 

Arrived at the foot of the fall, we remained 
motionless : our poor craft for a moment staggered 
beneath the weight of the waters which rushed in 
heavy volume over her bows. Had the wind lulled 
for an instant, or the men relapsed their hold of the 
ropes, we should have swung round with frightful ra- 
pidity, and been carried. Goodness knows where — but 
certainly not up the rapid. Some of our own sailors 
here leaped into the water, and, with their backs 
against the side of the boat, whilst the men on the 
rocks hauled at the ropes, literally lifted her half- 
way up the fall. The hundred naked savages, yel- 
ling and shouting, leaped again into the water: now, 
with their ropes, they gained some other rocks more 
in advance ; now again did our sailors put their 
backs to the boat, and again with renewed energy 
did the hundred naked savages shout and haul at 



MUSSULMAN OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH, 157 



the ropes^ till at length we floated in safety above 
the fall. Before the current could carry us back 
again^ we were secured firmly to the nearest rock, 
and my friend and I were chuckling over our suc- 
cessful ascent of the first gate of the Cataracts. 

After allowing the sheikh and his men lialf-an- 
hour's rest^ we proceeded to the charge of the second 
gate^ about half-a-mile further up. Not being so 
rapid a one as the firsts we accomplished this more 
easily ; and then^ glancing upwards at the sun^ we 
wondered whether we should be able to ascend the 
two remaining gates^ and so to enter Nubia before 
it set. Oul^ doubts upon this point were completely 
set at rest^ by presently observing the sheikh and 
his satellites slipping on their kaftans^ and by twos 
and threes scampering off among the rocks towards 
their village. Jumping up on to the top of the 
cabin, we shouted after them for a long time in 
vain ; but at length succeeded in bringing back the 
sheikh^ with a countenance expressing the most per- 
fect ignorance of what we could want. To our 
question of why he was leaving us in the middle of 
the Cataracts, instead of taking us up in one day as 
he had promised, he replied, Let not the Frank's 
anger grow hot : does he not know that this day is 
the Mussulman sabbath ? Even now is not the cry 



158 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



of the Mueddin sounding from the minaret, calling 
us to mid-day prayer? And would the Christian 
have us work, when Allah bids us pray ? " 

Viewing the question in this light, we could not 
do otherwise than request the pious sheikh to be 
sure and come down to us the first thing in the 
morning — ^and so he left us: nor would I do vio- 
lence to his character by raising the question, Whe- 
ther he spent the rest of the day in the mosque, 
or at home on the divan with his chibouque and 
hareem ? " 

All the afternoon the wind blew fearfully from 
the desert, bringing with it such clouds of hot sand 
that we were forced to retreat to our cabins for 
shelter ; and even there, though we closed all the 
windows and locked the doors, was nothing free 
from its gritty influence. 

Before closing our eyes in sleep for the second 
time 'mid the Cataract's roar, my friend and I asked 
each other one question, ^* Why did that holy sheikh 
receive the two dollars ? Was it not in earnest of 
our passing the Cataracts in one day ?" But there 
lay a mystery, even such an one as was not to be 
solved. 

The whole of the next morning, from sunrise, 
was spent in passing the two remaining gates ; and 



AFLOAT IN NUBIA. 



159 



an hour after noon we floated safely upon the Nile 
in Nubia. 

The first thing to be done was to clear our boat 
of the swarms of naked Cataract men^ who refused 
to leave us until we complied with their demands 
for a hucksheesh in addition to their pay. In vain 
we remonstrated with them^ reminding them that it 
had only been promised on condition of our being 
passed in one day — nothing but a hncksheesh would 
satisfy them — and a bucksheesh of the most exten- 
sive kind they declared they would have. As they 
seemed averse to reason, we were obliged to have 
recourse to foul means. Retiring to our cabins, as 
if for the money, we armed ourselves with a couple 
of kurbashes, and then, suddenly rushing out upon 
them, we laid about us with right good will ; and 
seizing some of the lightly made ones round the 
waist, we literally pitched them into the river. 
Our ruse had its desired effect; for within a few 
minutes our boat was surrounded with black heads, 
all making for the shore, whilst we were at liberty 
to pursue our voyage in peace — but no, not yet — 
for we presently perceived that there was one great 
strapping fellow left. The moment my friend saw 
him, he made at him with his kurbash in the air. 
The Nubian gentleman, divining his kind intentions. 



160 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



turned to flee^ and was in the act of springing into 
the river, when the well-directed foot of my friend 
lent him such powerful assistance, as considerably 
facilitated his intended exit. But for three long 
weeks after did my friend limp disconsolately on 
one leg ; for, in the act of kicking the Nubian, he 
had quite overlooked the fact of his feet being armed 
with nothing more substantial than a pair of yellow 
kid Turkish slippers. 



NUBIA. 



161 



CHAP. XV, 

NUBIA. 

As in Egypt, so in Nubia, was Bucksheesh^ ya 
HowadjV^ the sole sound— save the sigh of the 
sakia, and the creek of the shadoof, that greeted us 
as we sailed up the river, or strolled along its banks. 
— Intoned in a far stouter, manlier voice than in 
Egypt, we felt that here we had entered upon a 
different scene ; — farewell for a time to veils and 
sore eyes. So different to the country we had just 
left, there was an air of cleanliness and, of necessity, 
greater comfort, hanging over the poorest of the 
Nubian mud villages. Heaps of grain, ready for 
exportation to Egypt, stood in the scrupulously 
swept streets : coal-black women, their faces shining 
with castor-oil, their noses and ears adorned with 
rings of silver, collected into groups beneath the 
village palms, and smiled on us pleasantly as we 

AT 



162 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



passed^ offering beads and coins for sale : crowds 
of small children^ ^Yithout a stitch of clothings 
played a species of " I-spy-I " among the prickly 
pears, intoning the national anthem of Bucksheesh^ 
ya Howadji^"' whenever our backs were turned. 

In Nubia all the men bear arms, and, even when 
following the plough, are ever to be seen ready for 
action, with their spears and long guns hung cross- 
ways on their backs, and the shield of hippopotamus 
hide over the left shoulder. 

In general the Nubians are much poorer than 
even the poor Egyptians ; the young men, forsaking 
their household gods, go down into the land of 
Egypt, where they spend the best of their days in 
scraping together a small heap of piastres, with 
which they at length return, and, investing their 
hardly-earned and scanty fortune in a sakia, they 
idle away the remainder of their lives listening to 
its drone and creak, as it is slowly turned from 
sunrise to sunset by a couple of sleepy oxen. 

On the evening of the day which saw us through 
the Cataracts, we moored beneath the palms of Ka- 
labsheh, a distance of forty-four miles from Assouan. 
Here, as there is another raj)id, though small and 
insignificant in the extreme, when compared to the 
one we had passed, we were compelled to stop for 



BAYT-EL-WELLED AND KALABSHEH. 163 



the night ; and the next morning, by the time we 
had surmounted its tiny dangers, the fresh breeze 
which had favoured us for the last week had left us 
entirely. 

In a dead calm, my friend and I got into the 
small boat, and pulled on ahead, in order to visit 
the Temples of Bay t-el- Welled" and ^^Kalabsheh." 
Our boat fastened to the bank, we clambered up 
the hot, glaring rocks to the former of these, in 
which we were much disappointed, as Sir Gardner 
Wilkinson makes a great deal of it. It is very 
small, consisting of but two small chambers hewn 
out of the solid face of the rock : the larger of 
these, which can scarcely be distinguished by the 
epithet of hall," is supported by two columns of 
a very ancient mould, reminding one of the sim« 
plicity of the Greek Doric. At the upper end are two 
niches, each containing three sitting figures in high 
relief; and on the walls of the area outside are 
sculptured in a very beautiful manner the victories 
of the great Eameses. 

Hard at work, with cartridge-paper, brushes, and 
water, we found two English gentlemen engaged in 
taking impressions from the area walls, of the 
battles of the old Egyptian monarch. The younger 
of these I saw a good deal of afterwards, I regret 

M 2 



164 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



to say, owing to a very severe, in fact narrowly 
escaping a fatal, accident at Sinai, as he was on his 
way to Jerusalem, by the long desert, after return- 
ing from Xubia. After a short conversation, we 
left them still at work, and descended to visit the 
Kalabsheh Temple. 

These are ruins of the largest temple in Xubia, 
but of a much later date than the small one we 
had just left. Sir Gardner says, It appears to 
have been built in the reign of Augustus; and 
though other Csesars, particularly Caligula, Trajan, 
and Severus, made considerable additions to the 
sculptures, it was left unfinished. The stones em- 
ployed in its construction had belonged to an older 
edifice, to which it succeeded; and it is highly 
probable that the original temple was of the early 
epoch of the third Thothmes, whose name is still 
traced on a granite statue lying near the quay before 
the entrance." 

We spent the greater part of the morning ex- 
ploring its numerous halls, chambers, and staircases, 
and then returned to our boat, which we found 
surrounded with a quantity of Nubian girls, who 
had come down to the river with their stone jars for 
water. All Nile travellers will not fail to re- 
member the simplicity of the Nubian girl's attire^ 



HOW THE NUBIAN GIRL ATTIRES HERSELF. 165 



consisting merely in a broad belt of leather cut into 
innumerable strips^ adorned with coloured beads and 
small shells. , As we approached they drew off to a 
distance ; but, gradually taking courage, they again 
gathered round our boat, thus giving us an oppor- 
tunity for practising our Arabic with them. One 
of them seemed much amused at my telling her that 
her mode of dress was far from expensive. After a 
few words of consultation with the rest, she asked 
me what I would give her for her only garment. I 
offered two piastres (fourpence) : with a merry 
laugh, she said, if I would make it four^ she would 
sell it to me ; so, placing four piastres in one of her 
out-stretched hands, with the other she proceeded 
without the least hesitation to disrobe herself, and I 
was made the possessor of a Nubian full-dress," 
shells, beads, and all et ceteras^ for the small sum of 
eightpence ! 

On the afternoon of this day (^February \st) we 
passed the Tropic of Cancer, over against the 
Temple of Dendouah. The wind, which had carried 
us so gloriously up the Rapids of Syene, had quite 
left us, a broiling sun was above us, our poor sails 
hung faint and motionless from the yards ; indeed, 
with little to see and nothing to shoot, the majority 
of our Nubian days passed hotly and heavily. 

M 3 



166 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Instead of shouldering my gun after breakfast^ as 
in Egypt^ I used to stick a camel's hair brush 
between each of my fingers^ and, with the help of 
Newman's colours, and a glass of Nile water, com- 
mit to paper the different reaches of the river, as it 
flows through Nubia. Entirely ignorant of the 
requisite colours for landscape painting when I left 
London, I now found to my sorrow that I had not 
been happy in my choice ; and, without being able 
to avoid it, I was obliged to put in all my skies with 
" Prussian," instead of " Nubian " blue. 

The scenery, this side of the first Cataracts, is 
quite different, and far more beautiful than in 
Egypt. Rocky mountains lie heaped about in 
grand confusion along the river's banks, all the way 
to Wady Haifa, leaving but a sorry slip of land 
for cultivation — for all the region beyond the 
great sandstone mountains belongs to the desert ; 
in fact, a Nubian's landed property possesses much 
the appearance of a small garden on an English 
railway-embankment, cultivated by the industry of 
a country station-master, and in which, as he says, 
^^he just grows a cabbage or two : " but so few are 
the wants of a Nubian, that he seldom suffers from 
poverty. 

A man's wealth indicates itself by his owning 



MUSIC OF THE SAKIAS. 167 

more sakias than his neighbour. These water- 
wheels are more frequent in Nubia than in Egypt ; 
and^ as they never see grease^ they soothe the 
Howadji with their soporific drone, whilst he floats 
up the river tranced by a tropical sun- Seldom 
more than three or four hundred yards apart, their 
song never leaves him ; for faintly as the sound of 
one dies away in the distance, he sails within hear- 
ing of another : sometimes a third will intervene on 
the opposite bank; and, as his boat floats gently 
into the delta of sound, each sakia of a different 
size and tone will join in singing him a trio — a 
welcome to the sweetness of the south. Lying back 
on his divan, breathing in his inmost soul the soft- 
ness of the sunset hour, the sakias will bear him 
aloft into dream-land, and with their distant and 
mysterious music will force him to hear strange 
sounds in Nubia. Borne across the water, and 
mingling with the wave and rustle of the palm- 
leaves over-head, he will fancy himself back in 
England, listening to village bells across the mea- 
dows on a summer's evening. Perchance his imagin- 
ation will force him to hear sounds more sweet than 
these. My visit to dream-land, when floating on 
the Nile at sunset, was spent within hearing of 
distant English bells ; but more quickly than was 

M 4 



168 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



ever messao'e carried alono* electric wires was I 
brought back to Nubia^ by the cry of Temsak ! " 

NoAV it is not to be supposed that, because this is 
the first time I have aUuded to the temsak/' or 
crocodile, I fell in with one for the first time this 
evening. In Egypt many a time and oft at noon- 
day had I watched the monsters, five or six together, 
lie sleeping on the long gandy strips: often had I 
surprised them with the pop of my rifle, but had 
never succeeded in doing them much harm : but 
now, here in Nubia, had I been summoned, with con- 
siderably more than post haste, all the way from 
English meadows and village bells, to look at an 
enormous creature, some twenty feet in length, lying 
asleep, not a hundred yards from us, on the low, 
shelving bank. My rifle, all ready loaded, was at 
my shoulder in a second: my friend with a telescope, 
to watch the effect of the bullet, requested me to be 
sure and hit him in the eye. One anxious moment, 
as I pressed the trigger, and then I fired. Hit 
by Jove ! " shouted my friend ; and sure enough I 
had. The poor crocodile turned slowly on his side, 
raised one paw, and seemed to have expired. " Allah 
akber" (God is great), cried the reis and boatmen in 
chorus. The boat was shaken up into the wind, the 
sheet let go, and my friend and I were in the act of 



ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE. 169 



jumping into the boat to go and fetch him, when — 
mirabile dictu ! — the crocodile rolled back again on 
to his stomachy and committed himself to the deep. 
For a few minutes we paused, watching the spot 
where he had disappeared beneath the surface, and 
then again hauling in our sheet, we bore away to 
the south. All the Arabs declared that the creature 
had been hit, though I had failed in killing him. 
As we stood discussing the matter, each moment 
increasing the distance between us and the sand- 
bank, where we had first seen him, we observed him 
again rise above the water, and creep with difficulty 
on to the bank. Confident now that he had been 
wounded, and was unable to remain long below the 
surface, we again put our boat about, and^ though at 
a distance of two hundred yards and more, I again 
levelled my rifle and fired, my friend also firing at 
the same moment. This time our bullets fell short, 
for, ploughing up the sand right under his nose, they 
bounded over him. Again the poor ^^temsak" 
soughed heavily into the water, and, though we gave 
him plenty of time again to make his appearance, we 
saw no more of him. A breeze springing up, a 
parting present from the setting sun, we shook out 
our sails this time in earnest, and were soon sailing 
many miles away from the wounded crocodile. 



170 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



The crocodile is, I believe, vulnerable in only two 
places ; the one between the fore-legs, and the other 
exactly in the centre of the eye. Considering this, 
I need hardly say that the Nile tourist seldom returns 
to Cairo with one as a trophy of his prowess — 
unless he devotes his time to it : but as we were 
upon the Nile for the express purpose of seeing 
temples, the country, and for enjoying the delicious 
climate, we felt that murdering crocodiles was foreign 
to our ideas of what was correct. If we had wished 
for a crocodile, I make no doubt that we could have 
at length obtained this one, by mooring our boat in 
the vicinity, and spending a week stalking him. As 
it was, we abandoned him, perhaps wounded, per- 
haps not hit at all, to be captured by some Howadji, 
who was upon the Nile for other purposes than we 
were. 

One of the amusements during a voyage of two 
months on the Nile is that of saluting, whenever you 
meet or pass another dahabieh — a sort of How 
d'ye do ? to a brother Frank in the East. 

One hot sultry evening, after having tracked from 
sunrise to sunset, and not getting over more than 
ten miles of ground, or rather water, we found 
ourselves, as usual, moored beneath the palms 
towards the hour of eight. The lively rattle of 



A MISTAKE. 



171 



the tea-cups had just ceased^ the crew had melted 
from singing into sleep, we were lying back on our 
divans dreaming over Latakia, silence reigned^ — = 
when suddenly the distant plash of oars, and the strain 
of an Arab boat-song broke lengthening on our ears. 
The reis, raising himself on one arm, and shaking 
back his capote from his head, listened ; then mur- 
muring to himself, Merkeb Ingleez " (English 
boat), lay down again to sleep. Throwing down our 
pipes, we also rose up to listen : It must be the 
Gordons' boat returning from Wady Haifa," said 
my friend. (The Gordons were friends of ours, 
whom we had not seen since leaving Cairo, as they 
had started a week before us, nor had we been able 
to overtake them.) As they were still some distance 
off, we agreed it would be great fun to row up the 
river in the small boat, under cover of the night, and 
dropping down upon them with the stream, to fire 
across their bows, and go on board in style, 

^' To cast off the boat, jump into her, get out the 
oars, and start away," as G. P. E. James would say, 
" was but the work of a moment ! " In a quarter of 
an hour we were abreast; then, putting her head 
round, we shot down the current, till close to them. 
Bang, bang ! bang, bang ! went our four barrels, and 
we hailed. Of course they lay to on their oars to 



172 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



know Trliat we wanted — " English boat^ ahoy ! " 
hark I some outlandish answer I English boat^ 
ahoy I *' we again shouted. This time we caught it. 
" Bucksheeshy Hoicadji ! " "What trouble we had 
taken to hail a slave-boat dropping down the river 
for the next Cairo market! 

The sun shines brightly in Xubia ; and this day 
was truly tropical^ the intense brilliancy of the 
atmosphere clothing the desert shore on either side 
of us vrith all the verdure and luxuiiance of some of 
the valleys of southern France. TTe were sailing 
now in that part of Xubia which goes by the name 
of Corusco^ and here the mountains are much higher, 
in some instances so completely landlocking the 
river, as to give it the appearance of a broad sunny 
lake : and often to-day I could fancy myself stand- 
ing on the Hotel terrace at Yevay, gazing upon the 
soft beauties of Geneva. But all bright days must 
wane, and all suns, however fair, must set ; and, as 
usual, to-night the pure stars looked down and saw 
us chatting and smoking over our much-loved tea, 
moored beneath the gently waving palms, whilst the 
crew sat in the bows, sino^ino; and thi'ummino^ the 
tarabuka. 

Early one morning we arrived at Derr, the 
capital town of Xubia. Our cook Abda, being a 



OUR COOK IN GORGEOUS APPAREL. 173 



native of the place., and not having seen his friends 
since he was twelve years old^ came to ask for an 
hour's leave to go and embrace his family. We had 
of course been calculating on a request of this kind ; 
but I must say, that we were quite unprepared for 
the sudden blaze of splendour which burst meteor-like 
from behind the kitchen, in the shape of cookie 
come to ask for a holiday." It would be difficult to 
describe his dress, inasmuch as I was so perfectly 
dazzled on beholding it, that all distinct recollection 
of it passed immediately away, leaving merely the 
dim outline, as of some delicious dream. What I do 
remember was my being almost blinded by a species 
of sunset, worked in gold, red, and blue thread on 
his silk waistcoat ; a loose brigand-like jacket fizzing 
with embroidery was thrown with a studied negli- 
gence over one shoulder; his legs were clothed in 
most extensive bags of white linen, fold on fold of 
red silk confined the waist and supported the bags ; 
whilst his mustachioed face reposed serenely beneath 
the shade of a gloriously big white turban. There 
was no denying anything to so princely a cook; so 
away he went to see his mother. I may say, that 
we felt not a little proud of our servant, when in the 
distance we saw the whole of Derr, under the palms, 
admiring in anywise but mute astonishment the 



174 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



little nigger boy who had left them twelve years 
suice^ to seek his fortune in the land of Egypt. 

Loosing from Derr, a fresh north-wester danced 
us merrily over the wavelets past Ibreem^ and con- 
tinuing during the greater part of the nighty we 
made fast the next afternoon beneath the magni- 
ficent Temple of Aboo-Simbel. 

Hitherto we had been undecided as to whether 
we should push on to Wady Haifa and the Second 
Cataracts^ or not; but, considering all things, the 
length of time we had consumed in coming so far, 
the shortness of my companion's leave, and many 
other little " heres and theres," we came to a deter- 
mination this evening that the temple, beneath 
whose gigantic proportions we then lay moored, 
should be the ultima Thule'^ of our voyage. Nor 
were the sailors slow in commencing to put the boat 
into rowing trim, when we made known to them 
our mind. They seemed only too rejoiced to be on 
their way back to their friends in Cairo. 

We sought the sweet south no more ; and under 
the bluff headland of Aboo-Simbel, whilst the crew 
are stripping our bark of all its beauty, and convert- 
ing it into a sort of floating hulk, we climb the 
rock to dive into the adytum of the temple, by 
far the most splendid and most interesting of all the 



ABOO-SIMBEL. 



175 



ruins of Nubia, and, excepting Thebes, in tbe whole 
Nile valley. 

It consists of two buildings, both fronting the 
river, and carved in the face of the rock. They date 
from the period of Rameses the Great; and the 
countless frescoes with which their walls are deco- 
rated throw great light on the history of that con- 
queror. As fa9ades, they have colossal figures in 
high relief, but those on the larger and southern- 
most of the twain are the more splendid. They are 
four in number, seated on thrones^ and are supposed 
to be life-portraits of the great Eameses. Their 
faces are still in nearly as good preservation as the 
day on which they bade adieu to the chisel of the 
sculptor, and evince a sweetness and beauty of ex- 
pression, the more striking as it is unlooked for in 
figures of such dimensions. Their height, not in- 
cluding their pedestals, is about sixty feet, and the 
total height of the facade about ninety-five feet. 

The entrance is so choked up with sand that, to 
effect an ingress, we were forced to lie fiat on our 
faces, and to crawl in by inches. By this time the 
sun had sunk beneath the horizon, so that we were 
deprived of the little light which manages to creep 
in here by day ; in darkness the most profound we 
groped our way into the temple ; and almost breath- 



176 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



less to know by what magnificences we were sur- 
rounded^ we waited whilst the Arabs^ heaping some 
logs together, prepared and lighted an enormous fire. 
In a few minutes we were enabled to discover 
ourselves standing in a superb hall, supported by 
eight osiride columns ; and as the flames shot up- 
wards, reddening the grim countenances of Athor, 
with which each column was surmounted, the effect 
produced was truly grand. 

Leaving this hall, we passed with our torches 
through a double door- way into a second hall, smaller 
than the first, and supported on four square pillars. 
To this succeeded a corridor, which brought us into 
the adytum, with two chambers, one on either side. 
In the centre of the adytum is an altar ; and at the 
upper end are four sitting statues in relief. The 
paintings are all historical, relating to the conquests 
of Eameses. We returned to our boat by starlight, 
and, as we sat as usual over our tea, we discussed the 
glory of departed Rameses, whose endless victories 
we had seen depicted on the walls of his temple. 

The next morning, whilst the crew finished their 
hulk arrangements, we climbed the steep sand-bank 
once more to look upon what we should probably 
never see again. 

It was seven o'clock, and the sun, fairly risen, 
rested with rosy splendour upon the huge, but 



ADIEU TO THE SOUTH. 



177 



beyond description soft, faces of the colossi^ where 
there, in solitary grandeur, they had sat presiding for 
more than two thousand years over the almost death- 
like stillness of Nubia. Hour after hour did we 
look and linger, sketching and lingering still, tranced 
in the sunshine and far-off murmuring sakias ; and, 
gazing up at Aboo-Simbel, how precious became 
those last few moments of farewell ! 

Though we had been schooling our minds, we 
found it hard to bid adieu for ever to the sweet south 
and the majestic beauties of the Nubian temple ! — 

O Aboo-Simbel, monarch of Ethiopian wilds, how 
can this be done ? " — were the words that burst 
from our full hearts — ^^how can we bid thee a long, 
a last farewell ? " — Then pulling our hats over our 
eycb, that we might be tempted no further, we 
rushed down to the river, and, jumping into our boat, 
pushed off and fled away northwards. 



N 



178 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



CHAP. XVL 

MUTINY OF THE CREW. 

Long enough have I lingered over the narration 
of our upward Nile voyage; but the stream will 
carry us through the Cataracts^ and back again to 
Cairo^ in far quicker time than it took us to struggle 
up against its never-ceasing influence. 

We left Aboo-Simbel at noon^ and^ floating down 
against a fresh north-wester all that day and through 
the night, we found ourselves the next morning off 
Derr, where the river takes a completely opposite 
course to the south, as far as Corusco, a distance of 
twelve miles. 

As the black cook wished to take another peep at 
his friends, we gave him leave to pull on ahead in 
the small boat, telling him that we would give him 
an hour's grace, and that we would wait for him 
on the opposite side of the river beneath the Temple 
of A'mada. It was a very sultry morning, and we 
as usual were reclining on our divans, feeling fit for 
little else than smoking and building castles on no 



ALTERCATION WITH THE REIS. 179 

surer foundations than the Latakia clouds which 
floated circling upwards from our pipe bowls^ when 
our boat suddenly standing in for the town^ we 
found we had energy enough left to ask the reason 
of its so doing. " To wait for the cook," said the 
reis. We then explained that we wished to moor 
on the opposite side, in order to visit the temple ; for 
we knew that if we paused near the town all the 
men would be wanting to go ashore to the bazaars, 
and so delay us in a spot where we had no wish to 
waste more time than was necessary. But," said 
the reis, I wish to stop here." " And," said we, 

we wish particularly to stop beyond the town." 
During this discussion — a most animated one — the 
men lay on their oars, not knowing what to do. 
" Stop ! " said the reis. " Pull ! " said we. Stop ! " 
roared the reis. By Jupiter! our wrath now rose, 
and we both sprang on deck. The mustamel, or 
steersman, was putting up the tiller in obedience to 
the reis ; we told him to put it down ; he refused. 
My friend now climbing up to where he stood, 
pushed the man aside, and took the tiller himself ; 
whilst I stood by, prepared for squalls. 

Matters continued thus for a minute, when the 
reis took upon himself the initiative. Leaving his 
seat on the bows, he came aft, and approached with 

N 2 



180 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



savage aspect my friend^ who was now holding the 
tiller in one hand^ and a kurbash in the other. Here 
was an opening for me ; so running quickly behind 
the reis, whose eyes were fixed upon my friend, I 
placed my hands on his shoulders, and twisted him 
over on to his back. How long I could have held 
him in this position, I am not able to say ; for some 
of the other men, taking his part, attacked me, whilst 
the rest of the crew pitched into my friend. 

To say the least, we found ourselves awkwardly 
situated; far away from the haunts of civilisation, 
and among a set of men who hated the very sight of 
us, being Christians. The moment the reis found 
himself freed from my grasp, he was upon his legs, 
and before I could possibly prevent him, he seized 
me round the throat, and began to push me towards 
the edge of the boat. Unable to stand against the 
sudden attack, I expected every moment to feel 
myself immersed in the swift waters of the Nile ; 
when some of the crew, thinking that the matter 
was going too far, interfered, and, at last, with 
difficulty, made him let go his hold. All this time 
my friend with his kurbash had had enough to do 
to defend the tiller, of which I perceived, now that 
I was once more free, that he was still the possessor. 

At this point there came a pause, and, on looking 



THE REIS LEAVES US. 



181 



rounds we found tbat we were divided into two 
parties^ some taking part with us^ but the greater 
number with the reis. Bethinking ourselves of a 
stratagem^ we once more advanced to the fray^ 
shouting the word " Bucksheesh ! " As we expected, 
the whole of the opposite side came over to us with 
one accord, leaving the poor reis to answer for him- 
self. Here was a triumph for us, and all through 
the utterance of that single word Bucksheesh " — 
that word, whose silver tones prove ever too much 
for the nerves of an Arab. 

The reis finding himself sold," as the expression 
is, was nearly mad with rage, and, seizing his bundle, 
declared he would leave us. Very well," said 
we, go along with you ; we do very well without 
a dragoman ; and doubtless can dispense with your 
sweet face." — So away went the reis ashore, wading 
and swearing up to his knees. 

Having thus got rid of another impediment to our 
happiness on the Nile, we drifted placidly across the 
river, and soon after lay swinging in the calm 
beneath a palm-tree, alongside another boat, the 
owners of which were examining the same ruins for 
which we were bound. Sheltered by our umbrellas, 
for the heat was intense, we wandered from the 
river across the intervening sand-plain, to the temple. 

N 3 



182 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



The parties wlio were busily engaged in making a 
note of the interesting sculptures on its walls, we 
had often met during our voyage^ and whose pecu- 
liarities we had as often amused ourselves with 
criticising. They were three in number: one 
gentleman, not very learned, but who was blessed 
with a wife who was pre-eminently so ; and these 
two were accompanied by a friend with a prodigious 
beard, whose lore exceeded in an infinite degree the 
total amount of that possessed by the married couple. 
When first we fell in with them we had concluded 
that the bearded one was the husband of the learned 
lady ; indeed, we had gone so far as to suppose that 
the first gentleman was their European courier, who, 
finding himself among Arabs and hieroglyphics, had 
relapsed into a nonentity, smoking his pipe in 
silence, and longing for the day when his star 
should ao'ain be in the ascendant amono; hotels and 
picture-galleries. 

What a mistake we had made the reader is now 
aware I But was it not strange that we ever should 
have fallen into such an error ? I remember that 
morning as we approached the ruins we stumbled 
upon the should-be husband, sitting pensively, I 
almost think he was sad, in the shade of the portico 
of A'mada ; and in answer to our inquiry after his 



THE LEARNED PAIR. 



183 



healthy he waved his hand over his shoulder with 
the words, They are in there.'' Poor man ! we 
left him in the portico and entered the first small 
chamber, where^ nothing daunted by the stifling heat 
and confined atmosphere^ the learned pair were ham- 
mering away with damp hair brushes upon reams 
of cartridge paper spread over the sculptured walls. 
Since arriving in England I have heard that a great 
work is shortly to appear, compiled by their joint 
labours. The heavier and more scientific portions 
from the brain of the bearded one, whilst the lighter 
touches are to be filled in by the fair but little less 
learned fingers of the lady. I have but one hope, 
and that is that in the preface at least they will 
sufficiently eulogise the less gifted gentleman, who, 
though he was ^^by way" of being the husband, 
played third party to such perfection. 

On returnino; to our boat and findino; that the 
cook had not yet made his appearance, we loosed 
from the bank, as we were anxious to arrive at 
Corusco before sunset, in order to witness its effect 
on Nubian scenery from the summit of one of the 
many mountains in the vicinity. 

As we floated down with the stream, we harangued 
the men on the exceeding wickedness of their late 
conduct, in taking part with the reis against us ; but 

N 4 



184 



EASTEEX EXPEEIEXCES. 



they did not seem fuUv to comprehend its extent 
until we reminded them that he would not be likely 
ever to reward their allegiance with a buckslieesh 
worth the having — if any at all. 

Arrived at Corusco, we moored to the bank^ to 
wait for the cook, whom we had left behind to follow 
in the small boat, no very arduous undertaking, even 
for a distance of twelve miles, when the force of the 
stream was considered. And then, as we were in 
good time, we commenced to scale the craggy sides 
of the loftiest mountain within reach, in order to 
feast our eves on sunset calories. 

Words, time, and my own powers of description 
would fail me, were I to attempt to give a faithful 
account of what I saw from the heights of Corusco. 
Turning to the east — for it was not the river with 
its waving palms, nor the Xubian villages en- 
circled with their tiny cornfields, nor the softly 
receding beauties of the sweet south, that made us 
almost hold our breath as we stood — but, turning to 
the east, we lifted our eyes from Corusco and gazed 
over the desert ocean towards Kossayr and the coasts 
of the Eed Sea. It seemed as if in time past some 
tremendous convulsion of nature had rent and torn 
into a thousand huge fragments the whole surface of 
the land, as far as the eye could reach. The scene 



SUNSET AT CORUSCO. 



185 



was one of the wildest confusion, all scorched and 
black, with here and there great masses of crimson 
granite, which towered up from the dark desert 
depths, like mighty headlands on a stormy night, 
about whose bases raged midnight waves. Down 
among those mysterious and awful solitudes Dante 
might have pitched his tent, and there, his mind 
attuned to the mystic scene around him, he might 
have conceived and written his Hell." 

Already had darkness spread over the face of the 
earth, when we commenced our precipitous and 
somewhat hazardous descent. In due time, how- 
ever, we reached the plain, and, guided by the 
distant lights of our boat, we managed to steer 
ourselves in safety to the river's edge. As we drew 
near we were surprised by the sound of many voices 
in violent altercation ; and, in descending the steep 
bank, we bruised our shins most provokingly by 
stumbling over a lot of boxes, canteens, bedding, &c. 
Words in the boat ran so high, that at first our shouts 
of Ya Suliman ! ya Mohammad ! hat el fanoSse * ! " 
were unheard. When at last they became aware of 
our presence, they all came tumbling up the bank, 
each one trying to seize our hands, and each one 
clamorous with his own tale. 

* Suliman ! O Mohammad ! bring a iij^ht!" 



186 



EASTEEN EXPERIEXCES. 



As ^\e were not yet very strong in Ai^abic^ it was 
long before we could catch the drift of what it was 
all about. It seemed that the cook and the reis 
(who, by the way, had deemed it advisable to return) 
had arrived during our absence, and, very wrath at 
their pull, had been abusing the poor crew, who had 
acted under our orders in continuing on to Corusco. 
Of course, they got as good as they gave, and the 
upshot was, that the cook had got a good drubbing. 
The removal of his effects from the boat to the 
bank was merely a little tragic scene, got up in order 
to enlist our sympathies in his behalf; for he de- 
clared he could not possibly stay after the rough 
handlins: he had received. 

Xow, seeing that Abda was the most useful man 
in the boat, we were obliged to humour him a little. 
So, telling him just to put his boxes back again, for 
that we could not think of dispensing with his 
valuable services until safe in Cairo, and that we 
hoped one day to reward all his exertions for our 
happiness with a handsome hucksheesh^ we managed 
to put things straight. 

Once more loosing from the bank, we floated down 
towards Assouan, and thus ended this noisy day : but 
the Howadji had slumbered, and woke, and slept 
again, lulled in their dreams by the crew, as they 



WE DESCEND THE CATARACTS. 187 

rowed and sung far into the night, before they lost 
all recollection of their morning's battle, and the 
sunset that they had witnessed from the mountains 
of Corusco. 

On the morning of the third day after this we 
came again in sight of our much-loved Isle of Philae : 
and whilst the reis arranged matters for descending 
the Cataracts, we hurried off in the small boat for 
the last time to do homage to its ruined temples, the 
never to be forgotten tokens of a departed age. 

When we returned to Mahratta, we found to our 
great joy that all was ready, and that they only 
waited for us, instantly to commence the descent to 
Assouan. Pushing off from the shore, we moved 
slowly out into the stream, the speed with which we 
slipped along increasing, as once more the ceaseless 
roar of the falling waters broke upon our ears. Two 
men to an oar, and four at the tiller, with difficulty 
preventing our craft from whirling round in the 
eddies which beset us, we rushed swiftly towards 
the first gate. At a signal all the oars were shipped, 
and the river, like some huge monster beneath us, 
went plunging along, with us on his back, till, 
arrived at the brow of the currenty slope, he leaped 
headlong with us down among the boiling waters. 

For a moment all was confusion before our eyes : 



188 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



we felt the spray in showers against our faces ; and 
if we had not taken a firm hold of the small wooden 
columns which formed the portico of the cabin^ good- 
ness knows but we might have been pitched out 
among the great black rocks, through whose passes 
we were charging downwards. Hardly, however, 
had fear taken possession of our minds before all was 
over, and, swerving to the left, we drove high upon 
the sandy shore. All the men jumping up from their 
seats made at us, leaping and shouting to kiss our 
hands, amid cries of " Great is Allah I for he hath 
preserved the Franks through the worst gate of the 
Cataracts I " Above the river's din rose their voices, 
chanting theu^ own praises, and how that they cer- 
tainly deserved a most extraordinary bucksheesh to 
reward them for their efforts. 

The remaining gates, by reason of their great width, 
with no perceptible fall of water, were passed easily 
and quickly ; and, as the sun was sinking beneath 
the western horizon, we glided proudly into Syene, 
beneath a heavy salute from some American boats, 
and, like veterans of the Xile, who had done " the 
Cataracts, and explored Aboo-Simbel usque ad ima 
penetralia^ we moored among the palms of Assouan. 



MORE TROUBLES. 



189 



CHAP. XVIL 

KARNAK. 

Our list of troubles had not been completed by the 
explosion narrated in the last chapter ; for we were 
on the point of starting downwards from Assouan^ 
when we found we should be obliged to wait till the 
next day, as five of the crew had deserted and gone 
away to their native villages a few miles down the 
river. 

On taking the reis before our old friend the Cadi, 
whom we disturbed at his dinner, deeply engaged 
with a pilaff of a most exquisite odour, — at least it 
seemed so to us, who looked forward to dining pre- 
sently,^ — and again requesting his assistance, he pro- 
vided us with an order addressed to the sheikh of a vil- 
lage situate on the river-side about seven miles below 
Assouan, and which he said would not fail to obtain 
for us as many men as we wanted: then, drawing us 
on one side, he whispered by means of his effendi, 
who spoke French, that the reis was greatly to 
blame for this desertion, and that he fully expected 
when we arrived at this village he (the reis) would 



190 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



make some difficulty about presenting the order. 

However^" said the Cadi, if he demurs at all, 
continue on to Esne, and give this letter to the go- 
vernor there, who will complete the number of your 
crew, and at the same time administer the bastinado 
to the reis." 

It must have been a full hour after sunset that we 
bade adieu to the Cadi, and with our diminished crew 
commenced pulling leisurely down the river. My 
friend and I were very tired with our day's exertions; 
but anxious as we were to retire to our cabins for 
the night, we were afraid to do so, lest the reis should 
play us some trick, and pass the village without pre- 
senting the order for the additional men. However, 
on his assuring us that he would do all we wished, we 
determined to trust him, and, retreating beneath our 
mosquito curtains, were soon half asleep, dreamily 
listening to the subdued chat of the rowers, and the 
measured dip of their oars. At what precise moment 
I lost all consciousness I am unable to say, but I 
remember being suddenly awoke by my companion's 
voice, telling me that the reis had done us, for that we 
were moored hard and fast to the bank, and that he 
and his remaining men were all asleep in the bows. 

To all my readers our reis may not seem to have 
been guilty of any great crime, but those who have 



OUR CREW DESERT EN MASSE, 191 

been Nile travellers must know that in descending 
the river a calm still night is a thing never to be 
thrown away. 

A few moments sufficed us to hurry on our con- 
tinuations and shooting-jackets, and then, leaving the 
cabin and shaking the reis, we asked him if he had 
made any attempt to obtain the fresh men. No/' 
said he, " to-morrow will do." Remembering the in- 
structions of the Cadi, we told him we should now 
continue on to Esne, and report him to the governor 
there, who would most certainly treat him to a taste 
of the bastinado. When he heard this he became 
fearfully excited, dared us or any one else to touch 
him; then, snatching up his bundle, on my friend 
going in search of his kurbash, he sprang on to the 
bank and commenced to walk off, accompanied by the 
rest of the crew, except one man, a Coptic Christian, 
who had stuck by us from the beginning. Not liking 
the idea of being left almost alone in such an out-of- 
the-way place, we each seized one of a brace of loaded 
pistols which lay on the cabin table, and, as he stood 
close to us on the bank hesitating, we declared we 
would fire at him if he did not come back. For an 
instant, startled at this sudden threat, he seemed half 
inclined to obey ; but the next moment, doubting our 
intention of going so far, he retreated a step or two. 



192 



EASTEEX EXPEPvIEXCES. 



and my friend taking care to hold his pistol high^ 
fired over his head. Thinking the danger over^ the 
reis began to walk off in real earnest, when, jumping 
on to the bank and following him, I told him I had 
still another bullet for him, and that if he passed a 
certain tree beneath which he was standing I would 
send it after him. This brought him to a stand- still 
again, but only for a second, for I suppose, determi- 
nino; to take the risk of beino; ao'ain missed, he 
turned round and fairly bolted as fast as his legs 
could carry him. As I had promised to fire, of course 
I did, but I forget now at which particular star I 
aimed. My friend and I then held a consultation as 
to what we should do ; and seeing that it was useless 
to attempt continuing on to Esne with only one sailor 
and the cook, we decided to return to Assouan, 
from which we could not be many miles distant, and 
again claim the assistance of the Cadi. 

On striking a lucifer and looking at our watches, 
we discovered that it was between two and three 
o'clock A. M. So, as the sun would not be rising for 
another two hours, and in the darkness we hardly 
knew whether the boat's head was looking up or 
down the river, we threw ourselves down on our 
divans to sleep, until we could get a little light to 
bear upon our position. 



WE TRACK OUR OWN BOAT. 193 

With the first streak of daylight the cook awoke 
us ; and as what little breeze there was^ was adverse^ 
we turned him and our only remaining sailor out on 
to the bank^ to track us back to Assouan; whilst we 
remained on board, to prevent the boat running 
aground with the long poles. Notwithstanding all 
our exertions, we stuck in the mud so often, that we 
determined to change places with them; and the 
next moment saw the cook and the sailor in charge 
of the poles, whilst my friend and I, harnessing our- 
selves into the rope, commenced to tug the boat 
along with all our might. I remember once volun- 
teering to work the bellows of a great organ for a 
friend who was amusing himself with playing the 
Hallelujah Chorus," and the perspiration breaking 
out on my forehead at the tremendous exertions I 
had to make to keep the tell-tale in its place : but I 
do assure my readers that those exertions were but 
child's play, compared to the laborious undertaking 
of tracking a Nile boat of some twenty tons' burthen 
for seven miles against a strong current and a con- 
trary wind. However, we managed to do it ; and 
after five long hours of the hardest work I had ever 
yet had, or trust am ever likely to have again, we 
moored our boat beneath the palms of Assouan, 
Having re-dressed ourselves — for, as we warmed to 
o 



194 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 

our work^ we had thrown off first one^ then another 
item of our clothing, — we repaired to the Cadi, 
whom we were surprised to find ah^eady cognisant of 
our past troubles ; in fact, he had just despatched his 
rawasses in search of the reis and his men. So, as we 
had not yet breakfasted, we returned to our boat ; and 
when we again made our appearance before the Cadi, 
about noon, the reis and several of the deserters were 
waiting to be examined. I need hardly say, without 
going into the particulars of the examination, that a 
sufficiently bad case was made out against them to 
warrant a sentence of bastinado, which was at once 
inflicted ; the operation being performed by four exe- 
cutioners, two of whom held the prisoner with his 
face to the ground, whilst the other two, in the most 
dexterous manner, fiUipped alternately the soles of 
his feet. As we were the arbitrators of the duration 
of the punishment, we did not allow of its being very 
severe, but clapped our hands as a signal when we 
thought each one had had enough ; and then when 
they had kissed our hands, and promised not to 
offend again, we adjourned to our boat, and once 
more started downwards. 

For three days we continued rowing and floating 
down the river, and, on the morning of the fourth, 
we made fast to the bank beneath the columns of 



KARNAK BY MOONLIGHT. 



195 



Luxor, at Thebes, among a small fleet of English 
Dahabiehs. Calls were exchanged, and invites to 
dinner were given, which, after our Nubian days of 
solitude, made us fancy ourselves back in England, 
engaged in the usual round of mild dissipation. 

The Karnak ruins are, without exception, the 
finest in Egypt : nor was our precoaceived notion of 
their grandeur lessened by a moonlight visit. In 
silent awe we sauntered about among the huge 
columns, which gathered up their vast proportions 
into the night sky, on either side of us, like giants 
of some unknown world. 

In the most perfect silence we leaned against a 
fallen capital, and tried in vain to raise our thoughts 
in unison with the magnificence by which we were 
surrounded. 

Half the night we lingered among its moonlit 
avenues ; and as we returned slowly across the plain 
towards Luxor, on the way to our boat, it seemed 
as if the whole object of our pilgrimage had been 
accomplished, and that we might now go quietly 
home again to England, and, with closed eyes, to 
prevent the current of our thoughts being disturbed, 
dream for the rest of our lives of its marvellous 
beauties. 

For three days our boat lay moored at Luxor, 
o 2 



196 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



whilst we^ with scarce ever a sense of weariness^ 
wandered, hour after hour, in the court-yards and 
halls of Karnak. Each day that we knew more of 
it, did we learn the better to appreciate its ruined 
splendour, and each moment did the thought occur 
to us — how hard to leaTe it all behind ! " 

When Rameses sat upon the throne of Egypt, 
there extended all the way from Luxor an avenue 
of sphinxes, the traces of which are still discernible ; 
and often, as we donkeyed in the early morning sun 
through the high grass between the two temples, 
we would try and realise what must have been the 
effect of a triumphal procession — the king, at the 
head of his troops, going in person to worship at the 
shrines of Karnak, to hang votive offerings on its 
walls, in testimony of his gratitude to the gods for 
having rendered him victorious over his enemies. 

How altered now the appearance of those halls 
and chambers, which once rang with the busy hum 
of priests and kings ! — those columned groves, once 
peopled with a moving crowd of worshippers, but 
now deserted, silent, and in ruins ! Save a few 
travellers in the season, who attract thither vendors 
of antiquities, laden with coins and ponderous gold 
rings, small images, which report too truly saith are 
manufactured in Birmingham, or on the continent, 



SWEETS OF SOLITUDE. 



197 



expressly for the Theban market^ and the mummied 
limbs of old Egyptians^ the high places of Thebes 
are left in solitude to whiten beneath summer suns. 

With the exception of the temple at Esne, all 
the ruins of the Nile Valley are without the pale of 
modern civilisation. You stroll up from your boat 
on the river^ and enter Karnak, without having to 
encounter a human Cerberus with a bunch of keys^ 
soliciting your signature in a visitors' book, ex- 
pectant of sundry shillings. You can wander where 
you will, and look at what you please, without 
having to pay for it. You can even dispose your 
limbs beneath a column, and take your noon-tide 
siesta, without being thought a Goth— for, however 
sacrilegious such a proceeding, there would be no 
one there to observe it. 

The pleasure of finding oneself thus alone among 
the huge propylons and columns of the Egyptian 
temples, with no eyes to encounter save the vacant 
granite orbs of hawk-headed deities, is inexpressibly 
great. 

But about even this charming solitude a few 
travellers' tales are afloat, which tend to detract a 
little from its sweetness : how that men of Herculean 
proportions, and of murderous aspect, have been 
known to appear mysteriously and suddenly at the 

o 3 



198 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 

traveller's elbow, and to have demanded bucksheesh 
in tones that admitted of no refusal. And this re- 
minds me of an anecdote related to me since my 
return^ by a friend who was upon the Nile the suc- 
ceeding winter to which these pages have reference. 
He was a great lover of all manner of antiques ; 
and whilst at Thebes, spent so much money in pur- 
chasing old arms, that his weakness became pretty 
generally known amongst all the poor Arabs of that 
neighbourhood. 

Wandering about one afternoon, accompanied by 
his dragoman, he approached the ruins of Karnak ; 
and lea^dng his servant on the shady side of a high 
dead wall, he entered the temple alone, and was 
soon engaged in sketching one of the principal 
avenues. Whilst thus occupied, his attention was 
drawn to a large block of masonry, above which 
two black heads were watching his movements. 
Xot liking to betray any emotion of fear, he con- 
tinued sketching ; but presently observing that they 
had come forth from their hiding-place, and were 
casting stealthy glances, now on this side, now on 
that, to see if the coast was clear, he thought it 
high time to put his drawing materials away, and 
rejoin his dragoman. He was on the point of ris- 
ing, when, on looking over his shoulder, he dis- 



ADVENTUKE IN KAKNAK. 199 

covered that they had approached so close, and 
were so evidently intending to address him, that 
to move steadily away in the opposite direction 
would be tantamount to a flight ; and, after all, they 
might not mean him harm. 

Having a small brace of French pistols loaded 
with bullet, one in each pocket, he placed his hands 
upon them ready to draw them out at any moment, 
and in this position awaited their approach. When 
they had arrived within a few yards, one of them 
significantly patted his side, and at the same time 
stretching out his other hand, uttered a few words 
in Arabic, equivalent to ten dollars. If my friend 
had had any doubts before as to their intentions, he 
was now convinced that they wished to relieve him 
of his loose cash ; so shaking his head, in testimony 
of his disinclination to comply with their demands, 
he commenced to beat a retreat in the direction of 
his dragoman. Before he had advanced a dozen 
yards, they had overtaken him; and then placing 
themselves immediately before him, the one who 
had already spoken again touched his side, and 
slowly raising the skirt of his outer garment, dis- 
played, to my friend's horror, an immense horse 
pistol of undoubted English manufacture. War 
having been thus declared, my friend instantly pro- 

o 4 



200 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



duced his life-preservers, and presenting them at 
both their heads, shouted out to his dragoman. To 
his great relief the robbers took to their heels as 
fast as they could; but as they ran towards the spot 
where he had left his dragoman, he pursued them, 
and the next instant saw them caught between two 
fires. 

Able now to speak to them through the medium 
of an interpreter, he found, to his excessive amuse- 
ment, that their only object had been to find in him 
a purchaser of the horse pistol, and which they then 
again produced, assuring him that it was a veritable 
antique^ supposed to have been the property of the 
great Sesostris, and, on that account, worth in- 
finitely more than they were willing to receive 
for it ! 

Our last moments at Thebes were spent in Kar- 
nak ; and, whilst a full moon shed a flood of silver 
light across its columned avenues, we bade adieu to 
the most magnificent relic of past Egyptian glory. 
From sunset till midnight did we linger, yet hesi- 
tating to be gone — but loosing at last from the 
shore, we went floating down the river to Cairo ; 
and, singing as they pulled, our Arab sailors 
chaunted back on the still night air a last farewell 
to Thebes. 



THE SCULPTURES AT BENI-HASSAN. 201 

Again we passed the mosques and minarets of 
Keneh^ Girgeh^ and Osioot ; and on the fourth morn- 
ing after leaving Thebes^ we made fast to the bank, 
in order to visit the grottoes of Beni-Hassan* 

In a broiling sun we left our boat, and crossing 
the intervening plain, we climbed the glaring side 
of the mountain, near to the summit of which are 
excavated the above-mentioned tombs. From their 
form it is easy to see they were intended for se- 
pulchral purposes, each one containing niches for 
the reception of sarcophagi. 

The hieroglyphics and paintings, which cover 
their several walls, are perhaps the most interesting 
of any on the Nile, from the light that they throw 
upon the manners and customs of the old Egyptians. 
These tombs have also the merit of being of an 
earlier date to those at Thebes, and, in the elegant 
and chaste style of their architecture, may vie with 
anything of the kind between Cairo and the second 
Cataracts. 

The principal ones are four in number, and the 
paintings in the first relate to different trades, — the 
watering of flax, and its subsequent employment 
for the manufacture of linen cloth, agricultural, 
hunting, and wrestling scenes. In some places 
scribes register their accounts ; in others, the bas- 



202 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 

tinado is inflicted unsparingly on delinquent slaves ; 
then, again, women are seen playing on musical 
instruments, wtdlst others are kneading paste and 
making bread. The paintings in the second tomb 
are devoted almost entirely to games of hunting 
and wrestling ; whilst, occupying the whole side of 
the left wall, is seen a long procession being ushered 
into the presence of some great man, his rank being 
evident from his immense size. 

There are many opinions afloat as to the meaning 
of this procession, Champollion taking them to be 
Greeks made captive in war; but the majority of 
men learned in Egyptian paintings suppose them 
to be Joseph's brethren, being brought before him 
as he sits on his tlirone in Pharaoh's palace. 

To the south are more grottoes, some of which 
are much larger than those I have mentioned, 
though they are devoid of so great interest; and 
some columns in the form of stalks of water-plants, 
bound together at the top, and surmounted with 
the lotus-flower, add not a little to the beauty of 
one of the most extensive. 

Our voyage now draws to a close. After leaving 
the high white cliffs of Beni-Hassan, and whilst the 
evening sun was kissing with its golden rays the 
many domes and tapering minarets of Minieh, we 



OUR LAST MOMENTS ON THE NILE. 203 



passed floating down towards Cairo ; and rowing on 
far into the night, my friend and I sat wrapped in 
our capotes — for, though soft, midnight air in Egypt 
at this time of the year is very cold — wrapped in 
our capotes, we sat on our divans ; and, as we lis- 
tened for the last time to our Arab crew singing, 
and thrumming the tarabuka, whilst we slipped 
swiftly, but silently, down the river, we strove in 
vain to think that, having been two months on the 
Nile, we had had enough of it. 

Never again do I look forward to spending two 
months in a more serene and pleasant manner. We 
certainly had experienced disagreeables — perhaps 
more than most Nile tourists — dispensing with dra- 
gomanic services, trials of strength with our reis, and 
so forth ; yet, might they not be looked upon as little 
periods of excitement, without which our river life 
would, perchance, have been somewhat monotonous ? 

It is a common saying in Egypt, that he who 
has once tasted the sweet waters of the Nile, will 
return, sooner or later, to drink of them again.'' 
Whether this saying is likely to come true, in my 
case, remains, I fear, to some very distant future to 
decide; but the period that I spent in sailing over 
those waters will ever remain marked in my 
memory with white chalk. 



204 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Without a care for the morrow, one lives on the 
Nile, from day to day, luxuriating in such a present 
as seldom happens to a man twice in his life. 
Entirely freed from every kind of restraint neces- 
sarily imposed upon one by society in England, one 
literally lives here au iiatureL 

All day, and every day from sunrise to sunset, 
one is abroad on the earth, passing away the time 
with self and nature, walking, shooting, or visiting 
temples ; and living ever in such an exquisite climate, 
beneath a cloudless sky, both by day and night, one 
seems to get at last quite intimate with all the 
heavenly bodies, but more especially the moon, and 
is able to calculate on her appearance to a minute; so 
that we used often to say to each other, " I hope we 
shall get to such a place by eight o'clock next 
Tuesday evening, for we shall then have finished 
dinner ; and as the moon rises a quarter before, the 
ruins will be seen to advantage." 

For the last time we breakfasted in the cool 
morning air ; and looking on ahead, we found, to 
our sorrow, that we had floated once more within 
sight of the citadel of El Masr," or Cairo. For 
the last time we puffed our chibouques in silence 
beneath the awning, and watched the women, bearing 
their large stone jars on their heads, come down to 



ARKIYAL IN CAIRO. 



205 



the water-side. On the summit of the bank they 
stood erect and stately, profile-drawn against the 
sky ; then, descending one by one to the water's 
edge, they filled their jars ; and, finally, receding in 
long file, they disappeared among the palms. During 
the heated silence of noon, we watched the pigeons 
over the brown mud villages, fluttering and hanging 
by hundreds to the square towers erected by man 
for their special convenience. For the last time we 
were witnesses to sunset glories; and, with heavy 
hearts, we brought our Nile days to a close, by moor- 
ing to the bank at Boulak. 

For some days my friend and I were fully occu- 
pied in paying off our crew, and in selling, at an 
enormous sacrifice in the bazaars, those things which 
we thought were not likely to be of any further use 
to us; and then, as I purposed residing for a month 
in Cairo, before crossing the desert to Syria, I 
again took up my abode beneath the hospitable roof 
of the Prussian Consul, and bade farewell to my 
companion of the last two months, who was starting 
immediately, with some brother officers, for Jerusalem. 



206 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. XVIII. 

PYRAIMIDS. 

For the first time I mounted a camel — and an 
awkward and most undignified operation I found it. 
My dromedary, an animal which bears the same re- 
lation to a camel as a saddle horse does in England to 
a brewer's dray horse, was brought to the door 
whilst I sat upstairs at breakfast; and, on looking 
out of the window into the court-yard below, my 
heart sank within me at the sight of the great beast, 
evidently an unruly one, his long neck elevating his 
ugly head almost on a level with the first floor. My 
first feelings prompted me to ask rather to be placed 
on the most vicious horse in Cairo; but, screwing 
up all my courage, I dismissed the. thought, and, 
descending before my resolutions had time to waver, 
I announced — not my ivish^ but my determination to 
mount. 

The half-clothed, swarthy Bedouin, who had care 
of the animal, now made a sign, at the same time 
pulling his head down towards the ground by means 
of the halter. Within the beast instantly com- 



CAMEL-MOUNTING-, 



207 



menced a fearful contest, which gradually rolling up 
his long neck, burst out of his mouth in one loud and 
continued roar. With glaring eyes, and wide 
extended jaws, he seemed to say, I'll see you all in 
Hades first ! " But, alas for me ! his wish to dis- 
obey was in yain; to kneel down he was obliged, 
never ceasing to growl and grumble whilst my 
saddle was being arranged. When all was ready, 
two men placed their feet on his neck, to prevent his 
rising too suddenly, and I jumped up on his hump — 
and then came the awful moment. Roaring fearfully, 
the animal raised his hinder quarters, and I was 
jerked forwards towards his head; then, before I knew 
where I was, up came the fore legs, and I was pitched 
as far backwards, and forced to clutch frantically 
at his tail to prevent my slipping over it : one more 
general convulsion, in all parts at once, righted me, 
et me voila 'perche^ high above surrounding turbans, 
monarch of all I surveyed " — or almost ; for 
though I had full command of an adjacent harem, I 
felt that I was an intruder, so refrained from peeping 
too minutely. 

In my elevated position, I now stalked magnifi- 
cently across the Erbekuyah gardens to Shepherd's, 
where joining, according to agreement, some other 
friends who were satisfied with donkeys, we all rode 



208 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 

out of the city into the desert; and following the 
Suez road for a distance of seven miles, arrived, as we 
had anticipated, at the so-called petrified forest" — 
a large extent of ground, in all parts more or less 
thickly strewn with what seemed to be dried logs 
and trunks of fallen trees. So close was the re- 
semblance that these logs bore to worm-eaten wood 
that seeing, in this case, was not believing, and we 
found it absolutely necessary to touch, before we 
could persuade ourselves of the reality. After 
loading our attendants with specimens, we returned 
to Cairo, by way of the Tombs of the Caliphs — a 
most charming assemblage of swelling domes and 
minarets, lying outside the city walls in the desert, 
and whose intrinsic beauty was not a little enhanced 
by the rich flood of gold, and fast purpling evening 
sun-light in which they were at that moment bathed. 

We entered the city beneath a gateway, situate 
not far from the El- Azhar mosque — a fact which I 
have occasion to remember, at the cost, if not of my 
life, at the least, of a most serious accident ; for, to 
gain the Frank quarter, we had to pass through a suc- 
cession of very narrow streets, in nearly every one of 
which occurred a low arched gateway. It is, well 
known that some of these gateways are so low, that 
not even a heavily laden camel is able to pass under 



DANGERS OF CAMEL-HIDING IN CAIRO. 209 



them^ much less when a man is sitting in an erect 
posture on his hump, A native^ being aware of this 
difficulty, on approaching one which he sees will not 
admit of his retaining his seat^ slips off on to the 
ground, and remounts on the other side. I had 
passed beneath one or two in perfect safety, without 
being obliged to do more than just bend my head 
forward ; and was in the act of conversing with one 
of my companions behind, and therefore in a happy 
state of ignorance as to what was immediately before 
me, when the shouting and running together of the 
people in the street on either side made me turn my 
head quickly, but only just in time to feel my breath 
thrown back on to my face against the keystone of 
a gateway, beneath which my camel, with too much 
way upon him to be stopped immediately, had 
already commenced to pass. With a sort of feeling 
that it was all over with me, I threw myself as far 
back as I could, and was carried through in an 
almost breathless state, my shirt studs actually 
scraping along against the stone-work. On emerg- 
ing again into the open street, I could hardly realise 
my escape, for if there had been a single projecting 
stone to stop my progress, my camel would have 
struggled to get free, and my chest must have been 
crushed in. 



210 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



As the time would soon arrive for me almost to 
take up my abode on a camel's hump across the 
Great Desert, I took every opportunity of breaking 
myself into a motion which I found to be far from 
pleasant : and a few days after my visit to the petri- 
fied forest, I again ordered one of these animals, and 
in company with some other gentlemen whom I 
had met on the Nile, rode out to Heliopolis. In 
this direction the corn and lentil fields extend 
further than in any other about Cairo ; and all the 
way, a distance of six or seven miles, we passed 
through a fertile country, watching the fellaheen at 
their agricultural labours, and not a little amused 
at sometimes remarking a very tall camel and a 
very small donkey yoked together in double harness, 
dragging a plough through the rich brown soil. 

The ride occupied us about two hours, and, soon 
after passing the small village of Matareeh, we 
arrived at Heliopolis — its site marked by a single 
obelisk in a very perfect state. The traces of this 
Temple of the Sun, and of the surrounding town, are 
very extensive, and history speaks of it as being of 
great celebrity. 

In times past, when the rich Athenian wandered 
forth from the coasts of Greece, and was carried in 
his trireme to the land of Egyptj he used to ascend 



THE FOUNTAIN AT MATAREEH. 211 

the Nile to Cairo, and passing thence to Heliopolis, 
he would be shown the residences of Plato and 
Eudoxus — these philosophers having, it is said, re- 
mained thirteen years under the tuition of the 
priests of the Temple of the Sun. 

There are other associations of interest to the 
Christian tourist connected with this neighbour- 
hood: for at Matareeh is a fountain over which 
hangs an aged sycamore. It was originally salt; 
and the story runs that, when the Virgin Mary 
with the infant Saviour fled, under the protection 
of Joseph, from the cruelty of Herod into Egypt, 
they rested beneath this sycamore, and, being athirst, 
the waters of the fountain were made sweet in order 
that they might drink ; and ever since has the tree 
lived and flourished, casting a cool shade over the 
spring at which the Holy Family refreshed them- 
selves, after their journey ings through the desert. 

But all this time I have omitted saying anything 
about the great Pyramids. Strange as the confes- 
sion may seem, though I had been already three 
months in the land of Egypt, I had only admired 
them from a distance : but now a good opportunity 
offered. The same gentlemen whom I had accom- 
panied to Heliopolis proposed that we should make 
a joint expedition thither; so procuring a couple 



212 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



of tents, and engaging the services of a dragoman, 
by name Hassan, we set out one morning, and riding 
down to Old Cairo, crossed over, donkeys and all, to 
the opposite village of Ghizeh, 

A great plain, seven miles in breadth, has to be 
crossed after leaving Ghizeh, before the Pyramids 
are reached. But, when we arrived there and saw 
the great Pyramids, nothing short of the fact of 
the time that it took us to reach them — viz. two 
hours' donkey-riding — could have made us believe 
that they were more than a mile off. I fancy this 
will have struck in a more or less degree every one 
who has travelled from Cairo to the Pyramids. I 
suppose the exceeding clearness of the atmosphere, 
combined with the immense size of the object, seen 
across a plain, with nothing to interrupt the view, 
will easily account for it : but the most curious 
thing is, that they seem equally large from a dis- 
tance of seven miles as they do from one. 

When we arrived within two or three hundred 
yards of the base of the largest of the three, com- 
monly called the Great Pyramid, we were met by 
about a dozen Ai^abs, who are resident in a village 
hard by, and who act as guides. Accustomed to 
see English tourists without number, they have 
managed to pick up an immense amount of slang in 



THE SPHINX. 



213 



the English vernacular. It certainly sounds oddly 
to be greeted by a semi-civilised inhabitant of the 
Desert with the words " How d'ye get along/ old 
fellow?" "Does your mother know you're out?" and 
then to hear him violating the sacred atmosphere 
with a snatch from " Villikens and his Dinah." 

A little more than a stone's throw from the 
Great Pyramid^ the colossal but mutilated head of 
the Sphinx rises from the sand. Many years ago^ 
by the joint labours of Mr. Salt and Signor 
Caviglia, the sand was cleared away^ and its huge 
proportions, now again buried, were discovered. 
The body is that of a lion in a recumbent posture, 
and the whole is cut out of the solid rock, with the 
exception of the fore legs, which are of hewn stone. 
No pedestal was found, but a paved dromos in front 
of it, on which the paws reposed. Between the 
two paws was an altar, upon which sacrifices were 
performed ; and the area which extended from the 
paws, between the fore legs, as far as the breast, 
was sufficiently large for their sacred processions to 
take place. All that is now to be seen is the head, a 
female one, above the sand. The features are 
almost entirely obliterated, but many travellers 
fancy that there is still expression enough left to 
prove it to have been of African cast. 



214 



EASTEEN EXPEKIENCES. 



At three o'clock in the afternoon we commenced 
the ascent of the Great Pyramid— certainly a la- 
borious undertaking, but far less so than I had 
anticipated, from different accounts which I had 
read of it. Declining all assistance from the nume- 
rous guides, who were most eager to do something 
for us, we made our way to the summit in eight 
minutes, as nearly as I can recollect. I mention 
this, as I then had a book in my possession by 
an American, who had consumed at least twenty 
minutes of hard work in reaching the summit, and 
was so knocked up when he got there, that he 
doubted his ability of ever getting down again. 

If the traveller's object in ascending the Great 
Pyramid is to obtain a fine view, he may as well 
save himself all trouble by remaining below, for he 
will see quite as much thence. 

Once more arrived at its base, we gazed up in 
unspeakable admiration at the mass of masonry 
above us, stretching high up into the blue sky, and 
far away on either side; in fact, from this point 
decidedly the most exalted notion is formed of its 
stupendous size. 

The autograph mania rages violently throughout 
the whole land of Egypt, but in no place so fiercely 
as at the Pyramids. From the base to the summit, 



AUTOGKAPH MANIA. 



215 



is the Great Pyramid of Cheops become one vast 
record of the visits of many thousands of tourists. 
Names of all sizes and lengths are cut upon every 
stone, from " Joe Buggins " of Camberwell, to that 
of the great " Winterstein " — if we may judge of 
the latter's greatness by the size of the letters 
which compose his name. I suppose when we 
arrived at the summit the Arabs must have said 
among themselves, Here's a lot more of them ; " 
for forthwith producing chisels and other instru- 
ments, and without waiting to ask our permission, 
they said, " This very good place. Sir — very big 
letters : what's your name ? " They seemed per- 
fectly amazed when we declined adding our names 
to the myriads already engraved there ; but whether 
we raised ourselves in their estimation or not, I am 
in doubt. 

The perpendicular height of the Cheops or Great 
Pyramid is 450 feet, as measured by Colonel 
Howard Vyse ; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson has 
calculated that its base covers nearly the same area 
as Lincoln's Inn Fields, that is to say, about 550,000 
square feet. According to Herodotus 100,000 men 
were employed in the construction of this Pyra- 
mid, and in cutting and transporting stones from 
the quarries. These men were relieved every three 

r 4 



216 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



months by the same number; and the time em- 
ployed in building the two largest was 106 years. 

The second Pyramid is only a little inferior in 
size, but is more difficult of ascent, on account of 
the summit being still coated with the stucco, which 
formerly entirely covered it. 

After walking round all three, and examining the 
tombs in the immediate vicinity, we returned to the 
first, and with torches commenced exploring its 
interior. The entrance lies at a height of some few 
steps from the base. We first travelled along a 
descending shaft of what appeared to be smooth 
marble. This shaft, as nearly as I can remember, 
was five feet in height by four in breadth, and, as 
there are no steps, we found it very difficult to 
avoid constantly slipping. Its length is about 
eighty feet ; and, arrived at its extreme limit, we 
turned to the right, and, once more able to stand 
upright, we ascended a smaU flight of rough steps, 
and, then again obliged to stoop, we ascended 
another shaft of about the same length and dimen- 
sions as the first. From the summit of this there 
extended a long gallery, which ushered us through 
a double gateway into the principal chamber of the 
Pyramid, called the King's Chamber. 

This chamber is 34 feet by 17, and 19 in height : 



INTERIOR OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 217 



the roof is flat^ formed of single blocks of red 
granite, resting on the side walls, which are built 
of the same material. By the light of our torches 
we approached the upper end, where was an empty 
sarcophagus of the same kind of red granite, 3 feet 
and 1 inch in height, 7 feet four inches long, by 3 
feet broad. And here it was that the body of the 
great king, by whom the Pyramid had been comple- 
ted, was once laid, embalmed and spiced, and other- 
wise rendered capable of lasting through many gene- 
rations. One of the guides, for our amusement, 
commenced beating with a stone the granite sides 
of the empty sarcophagus, and at last succeeded in 
extracting a bell-like sound, at which he seemed 
much amused, and proposed that we should in- 
stantly reward his efforts with a bucksheesh. He 
bore a refusal with tolerable equanimity ; for, con- 
sidering our having declined to immortalise our- 
selves by cutting our names on the summit, I have 
no doubt that he put two and two together, and 
found the total coincide with our not wishing to see 
the sarcophagus damaged for the sake of enjoying a 
little music, as he chose to call it. 

There is yet another chamber in this Pyramid, 
called the Queen's Chamber. It is situated below 
the principal or King's Chamber, and is reached by 



218 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



means of a gallery leading directly to the heart of 
the Pyramid-, from the lower extremity of the first 
descending shaft. It is not so large as the one I 
have described; and its walls have been much defaced 
on account of the Arabs having removed many of 
the stones^ in hojDes of finding treasure. It lies 
immediately under the apex of the Pyramid, at a 
depth of 408 feet below" the original summit, and 72 
feet above the level ground. 

After consuming an hour in exploring the interior, 
we retraced our steps to the mouth, not a little glad 
to emerge from the atmosphere of death, and the 
abode of bats without number. 

It was now dark. Our tents had been pitched 
w^ithin a stone's throw of the huge Sphinx ; and, as 
we approached our small encampment, and saw the 
fires burning, casting a red glow on the brightly 
colored costumes of the servants, as they passed 
and repassed before the flames, whilst preparing our 
evening meal, we became pleasantly excited at the 
thought of passing the night beneath canvass instead 
of tiles. 

Dinner being discussed, we sat in the tent door ; 
and, pleased at fancying ourselves to be Bedouins of 
the Desert, we compared our present mode of life 
with our usual one in England. 



A NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 



219 



One by one our different Arab attendants stretched 
themselves on the sand to sleep, the fires burnt low, 
and at length we bade each other Good-night/' and, 
wrapping our rugs around us, we retired to our 
several carpets — we had no idea of beds in the 
desert — and laid ourselves down to sleep. 

But we soon found that all such happiness was 
out of the question. The fleas were numerous 
and very lively ; the mosquitoes were savage, and 
quite famished ; so, after enduring a couple of hours' 
agony, I rushed out into the moonlight to cool 
myself, and strolling within the shadow cast upon 
the sand by the Sphinx, I once more wrapped my 
plaid about me, and passed the remainder of the 
night in making cigarettes, and contemplating the 
mutilated features of the Colossus. 

With the first streak of daylight we were astir ; 
and, after discussing some coffee and macaroni, we 
mounted our donkeys, and rode off" in the direction 
of Sakkara, leaving Hassan, the dragoman, to strike 
the tents and follow. 

A dreary and uninteresting ride of five hours, 
across the desert, brought us at length to the ex- 
tensive excavations of Sakkara. A French gentle- 
man in the pay of his government has been domiciled 
here for the last two years, and, through his exertions. 



220 EASTEKN E-XPERIENCES. 

many of the large sand-hills, here very plentiful, 
have been opened, and much interesting matter 
brought to light. So deeply is he absorbed in his 
work, that the fact of living from month to month all 
alone in the desert does not seem to suggest itself 
to his mind as beino^ at all a disag-reeable one. His 
sole companions are two monkeys — the most mis- 
chievous of their kind — who sit at his breakfast 
table, and from day to day assist him in overcoming 
his after-dinner bottle of Bordeaux. Unlike most 
children at dessert, they seem not the least abashed 
by the presence of visitors; and I do not think 
my Nile companion will ever quite forgive one of 
them for the sudden disappearance of a gold pencil 
case, which he fancies was quietly disposed of in his 
pouch. 

Through the kindness of the Frenchman, we were 
provided with guides and candles; and, at a distance 
of five minutes' walk from his house, we came to the 
entrance of the principal excavations. Descending 
a short incline, we passed through a door, and, 
leaving daylight behind us, and holding our candles 
over our heads, we threaded several galleries, and, 
after turning an equal number of corners, came to 
one very long gallery, down the whole length of 
which, on either side, were deep recesses, each recess 



EXCAVATIONS AT SAKKAEA. 221 



containing a sarcophagus of highly polished porphyry. 
At the further end^ gazing down this gallery^ was 
the figure of a lion couchant. These tombs are 
dedicated to the Sacred Cow, and each of the 
sarcophagi formerly contained one of these animals. 

In a smaller tomb, not far from these excavations, 
are many very beautiful paintings, all relating to the 
Sacred Cow, whose image is depicted under various 
forms. At Sakkara are more pyramids, though very 
inferior in size to the ones at Ghizeh. 

After thanking the Frenchman for his politeness, 
we again mounted our donkeys, and rode on in the 
direction of the river towards Mitrahenny, at which 
place we arrived in two hours. There is very little 
to see here, the principal object being a huge Osiride 
column, which lies on its face, poor thing, in a ditch ! 
The villagers, hearing that we were English, informed 
us that it belonged to our government, and wondered 
that our queen, if she was as rich and powerful as 
report had led them to believe, had not given orders 
for its removal to England. As we could give them 
no adequate reason, we left the poor villagers still to 
wonder, and to put the same question to succeeding 
travellers, as to why the beautiful Osiride column 
should lie on its face in the ditch, instead of being 
carried to England. 



222 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Mitrahenny has been fixed upon as the site of 
ancient Memphis, which in size and beauty was once 
a fit rival for the o^reat Thebes. Nouo'ht now remains 

o o 

to tell of all the magnificence and wealth that formerly 
existed in these desert spots, save numerous mounds, 
which, encircled by palms, look like the graves of a 
bygone nation. 

Spreading our tablecloth beneath a clump of these 
trees, we rested our animals, whilst we lunched and 
passed away an houi' in chatting with the villagers, 
who came crowding round us to see what was to 
be got, and who took the opportunity, whenever 
there was a silence, of chaunting the Bucksheesh 
Anthem. 

Two houi's' riding from Mitrahenny brought us to 
the river, which we again crossed, as on the preced- 
ing day, donkeys and all, in boats to the opposite 
side. 

The trouble we had to embark our steeds was 
certainly great ; but it was nothing to the business 
of disembarking them: for the water being too 
shallow to permit of our sailing close to the opposite 
bank, we were forced to stop short of it by about a 
hundred yards. Supported on the sturdy shoulders 
of the Arabs, it was not long before we were standing 
on tei^ra Jirma ; but, on looking back, we perceived 



DONKEY-RIDINa AT CAIKO. 223 

that no amount of kicks and yells would induce our 
long-eared animals to leave the boats. Even when 
the men had contrived to get the fore legs of one of 
them into the water^ the creature would persist on 
leaving his hind legs in the boat, perfectly careless 
of the ridiculous appearance that this position gave 
him. 

After a great deal of laughing on our part, and a 
great deal of swearing on that of the Arabs, all the 
donkeys were at length hustled into the water, 
and brought safely to land ; and then again mount- 
ing we rode across the desert by way of Toorah to 
Cairo, 

Passing the Tombs of the Memlook^ on our left, 
we entered the city beneath the walls of the lofty 
citadel, and threaded our way along the narrow and 
crowded streets, the donkey-boys running on before, 
shouting, O'ah shemaluk ! O'ah hemenuk, wishak, 
O'ah reglak I " which are intended as warnings to the 
passengers, and, translated, are as follows, — " O 
there, out of the way to the right ! O there, out of 
the way to the left ! O take care of your face ; take 
care of your feet !" And woe betide the old man or 
woman that fails to pay attention to these shouts ; 
for, as the rider never thinks of slackening his pace, 
short work is made of whoever may stand in his way. 



224 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



Nor does the person so rudely jostled ever seem 
annoyed ; and when the impetuous little donkey^ on 
which I have been ridinoc, has o'one with his head "full 
tilt " against the back of some white-bearded sheikh, 
I have often been amused at the perfect indifference 
with which the concussion has been received. 



WE PREPARE FOR CROSSING THE DESERT. 225 



CHAP. XIX. 

THE DESERT. 

Rather more than two months ago, standing on 
the steps of Shepherd's Hotel, I had entered into a 
partnership with an officer in Her Majesty's Service, 
the result of which was a voyage on the Nile. This 
partnership having been dissolved some time since, 
by reason of one of the parties " having left Cairo 
for Jerusalem, I was now again anxious to meet 
with another party " with whom I could swear 
eternal friendship, at any rate, so long as vf e might 
be travelling together, having been previously in- 
formed that there was a " party " in the hotel 
who was making up a caravan for Jerusalem. I 
was standing exactly in the same spot in front of 
Shepherd's, chatting with one of my Cairene ac- 
quaintances as to what arrangements were neces- 
sary for crossing the Desert, the best time for 
starting, &c., when a third party" joined us; and 
from a remark which he made, I was induced to ask 
if he was the party " I had heard speak of as 

Q 



226 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



about to start for Jerusalem. After replying in tlie 
affirmative^ lie asked whether I was the other 
party " that he had heard speak of as endeavouring 
to make up a caravan. Coming to the conclusion 
that we were both the parties " that each had heard 
speak of, we introduced ourselves to each other, and 
proposed that we should join forces, and face the 
perils of desert and Syrian travelling together. 

So far all being well, we went to church (it being 
Sunday), and then to smoke a pipe and sip some 
sherbet with the private Secretary of our Consul 
General, who had told me he was going to part 
with a servant likely to make us a good drago- 
man. 

Kemembering my lot on the Xile, with regard to 
dragomen, I determined to be more circumspect 
this time ; so that the next two or three days were 
spent by me and my new friend almost entirely 
in reading testimonials of all sorts. Our choice 
was at length made in favour of a man of great 
height and size, by name Mohammad Mazawood, 
formerly a kawass in the service of Mr. Murray, 
the Consul General, of great proficiency in the 
French, Italian, and Turkish languages, though his 
knowledge of English was exceedingly limited. As 
a boy he had been a pipe-cleaner, or boot-cleaner, 



AX EGYPTIAN WEDDING. 



227 



or something of the sort, to Champollion, who had 
taken some pains in teaching him French. 

Leaving everything in the hands of Mohammad, 
we told him we should like to leave Cairo that day 
week, that he was to make all the necessary 
arrangements respecting the camels and provisions, 
and so relieve us of all trouble. 

Rides to Shoobra and the citadel, hours spent in 
the bazaars, chatting and smoking with the vendors 
of silks and perfumes, occupied the remainder of my 
Cairene days. 

The evening before leaving the city, I attended, 
according to invitation, a native wedding. TPie 
ceremony was observed in the house of the bride's 
father, a rich merchant, dwelling in the Coptic 
quarter. It was about 8 o'clock when, preceded by 
an Arab bearing a fanoose, I arrived at the door of 
the house. Brilliantly illuminated within, there 
streamed out through the large gateway on to the 
dark and narrow street a flood of light : sounds of 
music and dancing, mingling with the chink of 
castanets, were stirring with envy the hearts of the 
crowd outside, to whom admittance was denied. 

Bidding my lantern-bearer await my return, I 
entered, and was conducted through several apart- 
ments into the large court-yard of the house, whicli 

Q 2 



228 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



had been roofed in for the occasion. On a low divan 
running all rounds reclined the numerous guests. 
The atmosphere was so laden with clouds of Latakia, 
which kept rising in thick volumes from their mul- 
titudinous pipe-bowls, that it was some seconds 
before I could distinguish a picturesque group of 
Ghawazee — or rather dancing boys, for, as I said 
before, there are no Ghawazee now in Cairo — who 
were delighting with their graceful movements these 
followers of Mahomet. High above our heads, at 
the hareem windows, glittered white hands, and 
bright eyes sparkled 'mid the waving to and fro of 
veils and kerchiefs; whilst ever and anon burst forth 
the loud and tremulous ziraleet * of the women. 

In one of the rooms opening on to the court sat 
the master of the house, entertaining a few select 
friends. My introduction over, I was motioned to 
take my seat on the divan to his left, and, being- 
accommodated with a pipe and the usual accompani- 
ment, a small silver fingan of coffee, I refrained from 
outraging the sanctity of the ^^back parlour," by 

* The ziraleet IS tlie crj of joy made by tlie women on all 
such occasions. It is produced by tbem in the throat; though 
I found that the only way in which I could arrive at the snme 
effect, was by pitching my voice into a falsetto, and slapping 
the mouth when open, as children are in the habit of doing. 



MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES. 



229 



uttering a syllable during the whole time that I sat 
there. 

Had this been an English^ instead of an Egyptian 
wedding, I should have most deservedly been stamped 
in mine host's mind as about one of the slowest " 
young men that he had ever had the pleasure of 
entertaining : as it was, I believe I acted in the 
most correct manner by preserving the strictest 
silence; for I had already learned that the best 
method of obtaining the heart of a Turk, was by, if 
possible^ surpassing him in sombreness and gravity. 

After sitting here for about an hour, I made my 
bow to the host, and strolled out again into the 
court-yard ; and, questioning one of the numerous 
dragomen who were loitering about, I inquired if 
anything in the shape of amusement was going to 
happen. If you will wait," said one of them, ^' till 
about two hours before sunrise, you will see the 
bride taken away to the house of the bridegroom " 
On looking at my watch, and seeing that it was only 
a little after nine, I determined to forego the 
pleasure of beholding the happy pair; so bidding 
adieu to the host, I went out to look for my lantern 
bearer, in order to be escorted back to my quarters. 
My vexation at not finding him, may be the better 
conceived, when I inform my readers of one of the 

Q 3 



230 



easter:n" expeeiences. 



regulations of almost all Oriental cities, viz. that 
Whosoever is caught by the police, three hours 
after sunset, walking about without a lantern or light 
of some kind, is immediately lodged for the night in 
the nearest guard-house, nor is any excuse listened 
to until the next morning." I suppose, taking it 
for granted that I should not leave the festive scene 
till a little before sunrise, he had gone off home, and 
left me to find my own way by Phoebus' light in- 
stead of his fanoose. However, notwithstanding all 
Mohammad All's wise regulations, I contrived to 
reach home without being either incarcerated, or 
knocked on the head and robbed. 

At an early hour the next morning, Mohammad 
came to report that the caravan was made uj), and 
that he only now awaited our orders to start imme- 
diately. As all our own arrangements had been 
settled some days back, I bade farewell to Mr. 
Miiller, whose kindness to me whilst in Cairo I 
shall ever remember with gratitude, and with my 
new friend I set forth on my desert journey. 

All our camp effects, provisions, water, &c., had 
been distributed equally upon the backs of eight 
camels ; upon one of which Mohammad had perched 
his goodly proportions. My friend and I had been 
deluding ourselves with the notion that toe were to 



WE LEAVE CAIRO. 



231 



be mounted upon the humps of two fleet dromedaries, 
by the help of which we had pictured ourselves as 
not so much forming a 'part of the caravan as in 
being in attendance upon it, at times scouring on 
ahead on the look out for Bedouins, or in search of 
the curious ; and I may say that our mortification 
was excessive, when, on looking out of the windows 
of Shepherd's dining-room, we saw that our port- 
manteaus, bedding, &c. had been packed upon the 
backs — not of two dromedaries, but — of two 
camels of the very largest and ugliest of their kind. 
In anger we turned to Mohammad, inquiring why 
something more picturesque had not been obtained 
for our use. Ah Monsieur," said he, I am very 
sorry, but all the dromedaries have been engaged for 
the Petra route, and these are the best I could get 
for you." 

Swallowing our vexation, we went through the 
painful ordeal of mounting, and then, bidding adieu 
to Cairo, we passed through the Gate of Victory, 
and sallied forth upon the desert ocean en route for 
Palestine. 

The body of our caravan, with the exception of 
the camel which Mohammad rode, had left the city 
some hours before us, with orders to pitch the tents, 
and get everything in readiness for our reception. 

Q 4 



232 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 

It was a little after noon^ when, leaving the 
mosques and minarets of Cairo behind us, we "pushed 
off" into the desert, and getting clear of the nume- 
rous cemeteries belonging to the city, we plodded on, 
swinging backwards and forwards with every step 
of our camels, for the space of five hours. 

Daylight was fast forsaking us, when Mohammad, 
pointing to some distant palms, drew our attention 
to the tents and the camp fires just discernible in 
the gathering darkness. " But surely," said we, 
" all those tents, and camels wandering about near 
them, do not belong to us ? " — Xor did they : on 
arrival we found that another caravan of English 
travellers, having left the same day, had pitched 
their tents in the same spot, known by the name of 
" El Hanka." To my great joy they proved to be 
friends who had landed in Alexandria some months 
back, on the same day with me, and whom I had 
met several times on the Nile. So we were not to 
be quite alone in our desert voyage, which was 
exceedingly pleasant. The party consisted of a 
clergyman travelling with his wife and another lady. 

The excitement of our first day in the Desert 
tended somewhat to diminish our appetites ; but 
somehow we managed to make away with a large 
portion of the cook's preparation of macaroni and 



OUR FIRST ENCAMPMENT. 



233 



Irish stew — a dish at which the Arabs are rather 
''great." 

The camels,, after their day's work, were all on 
their haunches, ranged in a circle around the tents, 
each one busily engaged in munching a great 
''mound" of green food, and which, as the dragoman 
explained, was not more than was good for them, 
since it was all they would have for the next week 
or ten days. 

Forming groups about two or three large fires, 
our camel-men and servants sang and chattered 
over their suppers ; capacious kettles, suspended 
among the flames, hissed ; tea cups rattled — in fact, 
everything conspired to render our first encampment 
the most delightful pic-nic that we had ever been 
engaged in. The greatest source of pleasure was 
to know that it was all real, that it was no " taking 
tea in the arbour," with the dining-room windows 
only a dozen yards off ; but this was to be our actual 
mode of life for the next two months. 

By ten o'clock all was quiet. The camel-men 
had wrapped themselves in their capotes, and had 
stretched themselves on the sand to sleep ; the fires 
were almost out ; and a full moon was shedding its 
milky radiance over our desert homes. We also 
retired to our couches — but not to sleep I The 



234 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



first night in the Desert was decidedly against sweet 
dreams and calm repose ; for our Arab guards^ gi^iiig 
a noisy watchword every five minutes^ and singing 
in the intervals^ completely bothered poor Morpheus, 
who tried, I am sure, to do the best he could for us 
— but all in vain. 

The eastern horizon was glowing with the near 
approach of sunrise, when the dragoman, entering 
our tent, woke us, and advised us to be stirring, if 
we wished to get the greater part of our day's work 
over before the heat of the day commenced. Whilst 
we dressed, the breakfast, consisting of an omelette, 
macaroni, and coffee, was prepared outside the tent. 
This we presently discussed, surrounded with all the 
debris and confusion of half-a-dozen tents being 
struck and packed, with all the camp et ceteraSy 
upon the backs of twenty camels, who, with their 
long necks, were wandering about in disagreeable 
proximity to our breakfast table, occasionally dipping 
their noses into our dishes. 

In shorter time than I could have supposed 
it possible, everything was transferred from the 
ground to their humps ; and, mounting our own un- 
gainly steeds, we fell into the rear of the caravan, 
which was soon plodding over the desert expanse. 
A few burnt embers, and the sand a little turned 



PLEASURES OF CAMEL-RIDING. 235 

with the tent pegs, were the only signs which 
remained to tell of the merry evening, the dinner, 
and the breakfast which we had enjoyed at El 
Hanka. Nor would these traces exist there long ; 
for the breeze, which was already creeping over the 
Desert with the rising sun, would in a few hours 
entirely obliterate them : and had we returned at 
sunset with the intention of pitching our tents in 
the spot we seemed to know so well," no amount 
of searching or reconnoitring would have enabled us 
to be at all sure whether or no we were within a 
mile of our quondam restingplace. 

However well your saddle may be arranged, the 
first two or three days spent on a camel's back 
cannot fail to be attended with a great deal of bodily 
suffering. With these pleasant anticipations, I 
mounted my camel ; but so happy and comfortable 
was I for the first hour, ensconced between my two 
portmanteaus, to prevent my rolling over the side — 
the hard back of the animal softened by the inter- 
vention of rugs and coats without number, a white 
cotton umbrella fastened at my back to shield me 
from the sun's intense heat — so happy and comfort- 
able did I feel, that I began to hope that the agonies 
of camel-riding were either immensely exaggerated, 
or else that they did not exist at all. At first I 



236 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



swayed to and fro with every step^ and positively 
liked it; by degrees my back began to ache^ so I 
tried to sit erect without moving. This proved a 
relief for a few minutes ; but, finding the effort too 
great to continue long in this position, I attempted 
to recline with my head resting on my hand. This 
last manoeuvre I found would not do at any price ; 
for the motion of the camel's hind legs was so 
utterly at variance with the motion of his fore legs, 
that I was jerked upwards, and forwards and side- 
w^ays, and finally ended in nearly rolling off altogether. 

What was I to do ? In distress both of mind and 
body, I turned to Mohammad. His advice was that 
I should allow myself, as at first, to be swung back- 
wards and forwards, and that I should very soon (i. e. 
in a day or two) accommodate myself to what I now 
considered anything but a comfortable motion. 

Without going into the details of all that I 
suffered for the next two or three days, how that on 
several occasions I slid from the camel's back to the 
ground, in despair of ever accustoming my half-dis- 
located joints to the ceaseless jerking and swaying 
to and fro, and how that I often determined to 
trudge on foot over the hot desert sand all the way 
to Jerusalem, rather than endure it longer — without 
devoting a page in description of all these miseries. 



ENCAMP AT BELBEYS. 



237 



I shall merely say^ that the day did at last arrive 
when I descended from my camel^ after many hours' 
riding, in as happy and comfortable a state of mind 
and body as if I had been lolling in the easiest of 
arm chairs. 

We left El Hanka an hour before sunrise, and, 
journeying in a north-easterly direction for nine 
hours, we pitched our tents, a little before sunset, 
close to the town of Belbeys. We had not yet lost 
sight of ^^land," so to speak, but all day we had 
skirted the edge of the Desert — cultivation being 
still visible on the horizon to our left. Towards sun- 
set, making a ^^tack in shore," we approached the 
aforesaid town of Belbeys, and pitched our tents 
beneath its walls. 

After dining chez nous^ and taking coffee chez nos 
amis^ we retired for the night, the dragoman having 
first blazed away with his carabine," to warn any 
wandering Bedouins of the reception they were 
likely to meet with. 

The next morning, as usual, we were up before 
the sun, and, whilst we breakfasted outside the tents, 
the camels were packed and everything prepared for 
the day's march. Our friends being ready before 
we were, went slowly on, leaving us to follow ; but 
just as we were on the point of starting, my com- 



238 



EASTEEX EXPEEIEXCES. 



panion founds to his dismay, that his watch and chain 
were missing. Of course Mohammad was called ; 
but on his expressing entire ignorance of their where- 
abouts, we were forced to let our friends gradually 
increase their distance from us^ whilst we examined 
our different camel-men and servants. As no one 
knew anything of the missing articles, we now gave 
orders to unpack the camels, and a regular search to 
be made, and thus an hour passed away ; but still 
the watch and chain were not forthcoming. 

It seems that my companion, not having finished 
his toilet vrhen I shouted out to him that the macaroni 
was getting cold, laid his watch on the bed, and 
came out to breakfast, intending to pack his port- 
manteau afterwards : meanwhile, to expedite matters, 
the tent had been removed, and the bed with his 
open portmanteau had been left as they were on the 
sand, until we had finished our breakfast. 

As my friend could swear to having laid, his watch 
on the bed, it was very evident that some one of the 
camel-men had taken possession of it whilst we were 
deep in the macaroni dish ; yet no one had seen it, 
much less taken it. 

Following Mohammad's advice, we again pitched 
the tents, and proceeded to have all the men ex- 
amined before the Cadi of Belbeys. As might have 



THE HOT WIND OF THE DESERT. 239 

been expected, two or three hours were wasted, and 
several dollars were expended, without our getting 
any nearer to the production of the watch. The 
only point we could arrive at was, that a man, in the 
garb of a Bedouin of a most disreputable appearance, 
had been seen hovering about the tents whilst they 
were being struck, his excuse being that he wished 
to be allowed to travel under our escort as far as 
El Arish. 

After wasting another hour in search of this dis- 
reputable individual, the Cadi wrote a letter to the 
Governor of El Arish, to the effect that he should 
take into custody any man arriving in that town 
answering to his description. This letter he gave 
into our keeping, to deliver on arrival at El Arish : 
and so we left Belbeys, taking with us the good 
Cadi's earnest hopes that the watch and chain would 
eventually "turn up." 

By the time we reached our tents, the "kampseen," 
or sirocco of the Desert, which had been threatening 
ever since we left Cairo, had commenced; so, follow- 
ing Mohammad's advice, we got us into our canvass 
houses, and, instead of proceeding on our journey, we 
closed up every little opening we could find, and, 
lying down an our beds, we went fast asleep. 

This wind is termed the kampseen," on account 



240 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



of the period during which it lasts, viz. fifty days. 
It never blows for more than three or five days at a 
time, though the whole time, from the day on which 
it commences until the expiration of the fifty days is 
called the time of the kampseen." Fortunately for 
us, we had a very mild specimen of it, being nearly 
choked with heat instead of sand. I must confess 
that I was a little disappointed in it : for when 
Mohammad, pointing in the direction whence it was 
approaching us, said, Voila messieurs ! le kampseen 
il vient^'^ I fully expected it would be a case of 
throwing ourselves on our faces to the ground, whilst 
the poor camels buried their noses in the sand to 
avoid suffocation. Instead of that, we merely retired 
to our tents and went to sleep ; and when we woke 
up towards sunset, the weather was so much clearer 
that we were enabled to renew our march. 



NIGHT MARCH IN THE DESERT. 241 



CHAP. XX. 

ENCOUNTER WITH BEDOUINS. 

Having been warned at Belbeys that some parties 
of armed Bedouins were in the neighbourhood^ who 
would certainly^ as Mohammad made out — as what 
dragoman will not ? — attack or annoy us in one way 
or another^ if they fell in with us^ we determined 
to make a night march of it^ as much for the purpose 
of eluding them, as of coming up with our friends, 
who by this time must have been twenty miles in 
advance. 

The hot wind of the Kampseen had died away at 
sunset, leaving the night air deliciously cool; whilst 
an unclouded moon lighted up our course over the 
desert sand brilliantly white with its rays. 

During seven hours of the most perfect silence, 
our little caravan went slowly on its way to Palestine ; 
and as, wrapped in my plaid, I nodded and dozed on 
the back of my camel, it seemed to me, in my dreamy 
state of half-consciousness, that I was being rocked to 
and fro upon the bosom of the wide Pacific, on a 
calm night, in an open boat. A little after midnight 

Ji 



242 



EASTERX EXPERIEXCES. 



I was awoke by my boat drifting on to a sand bank ; 
in other words^ our caravan bad baited, and my 
camel kneelino; down whilst I was dreamins: of tbe 
Pacific, I had been deposited most unceremoniously 
over his head on to the ground. 

The next morning before the sun was up we were 
again on the march, constantly straining our eyes 
over the vast expanse of desert, in the hopes of dis- 
cerning the advance body of our caravan. Towards 
noon some specks in motion were seen on the horizon 
before us, which at first were pronounced to be our 
friends ; but as the distance between us decreased, 
and we found they were approaching us instead of 
going our way, very little doubt was left in our 
minds that they were perhaps the very Bedouins 
whom we had been trying to avoid. 

In the course of another half hour, we were ena- 
bled to make out a party of nine Bedouins, all fully 
armed and mounted on small fleet dromedaries. 
When we came within hail, we halted, and our sheikh, 
the owner of the camels which composed our caravan, 
rode forward to speak with them. 

For a moment or two we felt decidedly anxious, 
as we were quite unable to cope with such formidable 
looking opponents; and Mohammad unslung his 
carbine, whilst we fitted caps to the nipples of our 



TOMB OF AN ARAB SAINT. 



243 



guns. In another minute, however, all our fears 
proved groundless ; for after demanding to see our 
passports, they allowed us to proceed, and they were 
soon the mere specks on the horizon behind us as, an 
hour or so previous, they had been before us. During 
the rest of the day we travelled in silence over the 
hot sands, and at sunset encamped close to the tomb 
of an Arab saint, near to which was a well, shaded 
by a solitary sycamore. 

Breakfast over the next morning, we struck our 
tents and continued our march, not forgetting to leave 
behind us a few piastres, a tribute of respect to the 
memory of the old sheikh who here lies asleep in his 
desert tomb. It is an Eastern custom always to leave 
a small offering at these tombs, an act of charity to 
the many poor pilgrims who pass them on their way 
from the shrines of Mecca to those of J erusalem and 
Bagdad. 

At noon we arrived at the small Bedouin village 
of Salla-hea, where for an hour we rested our camels, 
and spread our carpets on the ground to lunch. On 
questioning the people who came out of their huts to 
look at us, we found that some English, doubtless 
our friends, had encamped here the preceding night, 
and had only left a few hours before our arrival. 
Once more putting our caravan in motion we in- 

R 2 



244 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



creased our pace^ in order to overtake them by sun- 
set. 

Two hours after leaving Salla-hea, our attention 
Tras suddenly caught by something white on the 
horizon fluttering in the sunlight. On a nearer ap- 
proach we made out^ with the aid of our glasses^ three 
tents, and in the immediate vicinity camels to the 
number of twenty and more. At first we Avere sure 
they belonged to our friends, — but then why should 
they be encamping so early in the day ? To wait for 
us," suggested Mohammad. " Of course," we said, and 
rode briskly forward, happy at the prospect of again 
completing our caravan. Each moment the little 
encampment became more distinct, but each moment 
our perplexities increased. Our friends only had 
twelve camels, but already we had counted nearly 
thirty, grazing about among the stunted shrubs, and 
again we marvelled at the number of men. " They 
are Bedouins, by all that is true ! " said my friend, 
with his telescope to his eye ; and fully armed, by all 
that is disagreeable ! " 

At length the horrid truth broke upon us, our 
friends had been stopped and made prisoners, and we 
were quietly riding Into the same position ! When 
at last within a hundred yards, all doubt on the subject 
was done away with, by their coming on foot to meet 



WE ARE STOPPED BY BEDOUINS. 245 



US with very long faces, and informing us that we 
were all in the hands of the Philistines. 

Putting a bold face on the matter, we descended 
from our camels, loaded our guns, and, with Moham- 
mad, who was swelling with indignation, we went 
forward to demand instant release, or, at any rate, 
good reason for our detention. Our tescaries, or 
passports, were asked for, and, on their being sub- 
mitted to the leader of the party, were declared 
" informal." 

Now, seeing that if they had been written in 
English, instead of Arabic characters, the rascally 
Bedouin would have been just as wise, it was quite 
clear that their only object in arresting us was to 
relieve us of our purses. The reason they gave was, 
that Abbas Pasha (it being the conscription time for 
pressing men into the army) had issued orders to the 
different Bedouin chiefs, for the stoppage of all Arab 
fellahs* travelling across the Desert without tescaries, 
or with tescaries that were informal. Of course it 
was useless expostulating with fourteen men armed 
from head to foot, who could look us calmly in the 
face, attired as we were in wide-awakes and shooting 
coats, and yet come to the conclusion that we were 

* Fellah is the Arabic term for the labouring classes in 
Egypt. 

R 3 



246 



EASTERN EXPEKIENCES. 



poor Arabs in disguise, fleeing from the conscription ! 
so we shrugged our shoulders, and, being only three 
to fourteen, surrendered at discretion. 

Having come to this arrangement, we next in- 
quired what they proposed doing with us. They led 
off by saying that we should travel with them night 
and day, without being allowed to encamp either to 
eat or sleep, into some unknown part of the Desert 
where their sheikh lived, and that he should decide 
our fate. 

Against this course we protested most strongly, 
not so much for our own sakes as for those of our 
lady companions, who were already so fatigued with 
excitement and their morning's march that they 
hardly knew how to support themselves. 

As the Bedouins seemed bent on mischief, we 
sent Mohammad to talk with them alone, and try and 
obtain some amelioration of the sentence; whilst we, 
retiring to the tents, watched the conference with 
some anxiety. At a short distance, surrounded by 
the Bedouins, sat our dragoman, endeavouring to as- 
suage their malice, but which he appeared unable to 
do, if we might judge from their vehement gestures, 
and the way in which they every now and then 
brandished their long guns and spears over their 
heads. 



MOHAMMAD INSULTS ONE OF THE BEDOUINS. 247 

Matters continued thus for about a qua^rter of an 
hour; and^ just as words were at the highest, our as- 
tonishment may be conceived, when we saw Moham- 
mad suddenly jump up from the ground, and, all 
unarmed as he was, rush at one of the Bedouins, who 
was, without exaggeration, bristling all over with sa- 
bres and pistols, and, first hitting him over the head, 
proceed to kick him on a less distinguished part of 
his person. Of course all conference was immediately 
at an end, and we were thrown into a state of the 
greatest confusion. 

Pursuing Mohammad, who was following up his 
attack with immense vigour, my friend and I suc- 
ceeded in catching hold of his baggy breeches, whilst 
the other Bedouins kept back the champion on their 
side, who was eager to resent the injuries received. 
The reason Mohammad gave for this exhibition of 
wrath was, that the man he attacked had said some- 
thing so grossly insulting about us, that he felt bound 
to visit it with instant punishment. 

Our enemies, now preparing their murderous- 
looking guns, declared that, though they did not wish 
to proceed to extremities with us, nothing could save 
Mohammad — shoot him they would : " and his 
blood," they said, be upon his own head." 

The scene that then followed baffles all my powers 

R 4 



248 EASTEEX EXPERIEXCES. 

of description 5 for^ rushing pell-mell in amongst us, 
they did their best to get at Mohammad, whilst it 
required no small amount of activity on our parts 
always to be between him and them, as they ran and 
dodged about on all sides, with half-raised guns, 
trying to get a clear shot at him. 

Not being a soldier, and, therefore, never having 
been in battle or in a life and death skirmish of any 
kind, I am unable to say at what moment a man so 
far abandons all thought of personal security as to 
charge almost cheerfully an enemy bent on his de- 
struction, in the teeth of a murderous fire: but I sup- 
pose that, forming but a single item in dense masses 
of excited comrades on all sides of him, mid the rush 
of cavalry, and the incessant banging of cannon, self 
is entii^ely lost sight of, being swallowed up in the 
whirlino; vastness of the scene in which he is actino: 
SO small a part. 

But the case was different with us — a little knot of 
travellers pleasuring it across the Desert, three of us 
only carrying firearms, suddenly obliged to with- 
stand in cold blood the unwan'antable attack of 
fourteen men of war ! I must confess that not for a 
single moment did I so far lose sight of my personal 
safety as to look cheerfully at death, even for the 
sake of my dragoman ; I felt that it was not fair to 



SWOEDS ARE DRAWN. 



249 



my friends in England, and from the commencement 
till the close of the contest I wished myself well out 
of it. 

After the first burst of their anger was over, and 
still Mohammad remained whole and entire, our 
enemies withdrew a few paces ; and then one of them, 
unslinging a small hatchet from his back, came run- 
ing forward, swinging it round his head, which, when 
it had attained suflScient momentum, he threw with 
all his force right amongst us ; but failing to strike 
its object, it buried itself in the sand behind us. Then 
another man repeated this manoeuvre ; but this time 
with more success, for striking one of our camel-men 
on the shoulder, it brought him to the ground. 
Blood having thus been drawn, though not to any 
serious extent, they seemed slightly pacified, especi- 
ally as we declared, by means of our friends' drago- 
man, Salem, that we would certainly avenge the 
death of any of our party on their chief, who, not 
seeming to relish the fact of our pointing our guns 
pertinaciously on him, strove to keep back his men. 
However, it was not all over yet, for just as we were 
entering into a second conference, we discovered 
that Mohammad, who had rashly separated himself 
from us, was being hotly pursued over the sand 
towards Jerusalem by the man whom he had pre- 



250 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



viously kicked^ and who now^ with a bared scimitar 
of an enormous length and curve^ seemed about to 
do for him^ as our dragoman^ being a stout^ heavy- 
man^ was no match for the Bedouin even in a 
hundred yards. 

Unpleasant as was Mohammad's position^ I could 
hardly refrain from laughing, as I saw him pound- 
ing" over the Desert, his enemy gaining on him every 
yard. However, as there was no time to be lost, we 
set off to his assistance ; whilst the other Bedouins, 
thinking the affair was going too far, also ran to try 
and check their comrade's slaughtering propensities. 
But fast as we ran, and fast as Mohammad ran, the 
Bedouin with the scimitar ran faster ; and before we 
could prevent him, he had cut, as it seemed to us, 
our dragoman's legs off, for down went Mohammad 
all in a heap, and was on the point of receiving 
another blow when we arrived to separate them. 

This last little divertissement concluded, we again 
endeavoured, by means of Salem, to come to some 
amicable arrangement; and, after a good deal of talk- 
ing and spear brandishing, it was finally settled that 
we should encamp where we were for the night, and 
go with them before their sheikh on the morrow. 

Till a late hour we all sat in one tent discussing 
the events of the day, and making guesses at the 



THE NIGHT WATCH. 



251 



number of piastres likely to be forced from us before 
being allowed to go our own ways ; but on one 
point we were all unanimous^ that not a single six- 
pence would we offer them^ even should it be the 
price of instant liberation. 

As we thought it quite possible that the Bedouins 
would enter our tents during the night to see what 
they could lay their hands on, we each took our turn 
at mounting guard outside; and notwithstanding the 
extreme awkwardness of our position, I shall ever 
remember with pleasure those few moonlight hours, 
cold and calm, which, succeeding so immediately to 
the hot, feverish scene in w^hich I had been engaged, 
proved such a relief as I strolled up and down 
between the tents. 

Our enemies, whose numbers were by this time 
greatly increased by the frequent arrivals of wander- 
ing members of their tribe, had picketted themselves, 
in groups in a large circle, at some distance around 
our tents. Each group rejoiced in the light and 
warmth of a large fire, making their dark faces look 
doubly fierce as they hung over the flames, vehe- 
mently chatting over their day's sport, and indulg- 
ing in propositions as to our future fate. Every 
quarter of an hour they fired off one of their long 
guns, which breaking upon the stillness of the 



252 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



nighty tended in no way to sweeten the repose of 
our lady friends. 

Between four and five o'clock the next morning, 
being Easter Sunday, we were busily engaged in 
snatching some breakfast, whilst our servants packed 
the camels. The Bedouins, who had no other pre- 
paration to make for the day's march save rubbing 
their eyes and mounting their respective dromedaries, 
were of course ready long before us, and, in the most 
insulting manner, they shouted to us to be quick, as 
they pointed to the eastern horizon coloring with 
the near approach of day. 

Whilst my friend and I were draining our coffee 
cups and lighting up our matutinal cigars, we observed 
the chief of the hostile party in deep conference 
with Salem, the result of which he presently com- 
municated to us, as follows : — Why should there 
be aught than peace between the inhabitant of the 
Desert and the dweller in cities ? Let him give the 
poor Bedouin 5000 piastres (equivalent to about 
50Z.), and go on his way without further molestation." 
As we had no inclination to part with so many of 
our piastres, we declined this offer ; in fact, we had 
made up our minds, now that the affair had gone so 
far, to go right through with it, and to see this 
Desert sheikh whom they talked about. 



PECULIAKITIES OF THE " MIEAGE." 253 

By the time the sun was up^ our caravan^ includ- 
ing a vast number of pilgrims^ foot travellers to 
Jerusalem, whom we had picked up on the road, 
was well under weigh " — for what particular spot, 
we were as yet in a happy state of ignorance. 

As the sun rose, the heat became intense, till by 
noon it was well nigh insupportable. Far and wide, 
on all sides of us, stretched the hot glaring Desert, 
broken up into innumerable lakes, creeks, and rivers, 
by reason of the mirage," — a phenomenon of 
which I had read so much, and indeed had seen on 
several occasions, but never in such perfection as to- 
day. At times the whole expanse of Desert before 
us seemed to melt away, giving place to a shipless 
sea, the coast line irregular with numberless pro- 
montories and bluff headlands. Stunted shrubs ap- 
peared as mighty trees, beneath whose branches we 
trusted to pass for just one moment of cool shade ; 
but the next minute our disappointment was com- 
plete, by seeing them crushed beneath the feet of the 
camels on which we rode. 

But the mirage " was not only at work with the 
Desert, but also with our very selves. Was this not 
Easter Sunday? and had not our friend, a clergyman, 
proposed, a few day's back, that we should keep it as 
a holy-day — pitching our tents, giving our men and 



254 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



camels a day's rest, and listening to his reading of 
the service? Yet^, here had this greatest of all 
Christian festivals arrived, and instead of the snug 
encampment surrounded with the camels at rest, 
which we seemed to have seen so distinctly marked 
on the horizon before us, we found ourselves launched 
on a sea of uncertainty, prisoners in the hands of a 
gang of armed Bedouins, who were leading us 
whither we knew not. 

And so the morning passed ; and, when the noon- 
tide sun had expended all its fierceness upon our 
captive caravan, we were still being hurried over 
the hot Desert sands. 

Towards sunset, the Bedouins informed us that 
we were not far from their encampment, and we 
began to indulge in surmises as to our reception by 
their sheikh. The ground began to undulate ; and 
soon a few palms, overshadowing small patches of 
half-choked burnt-up vegetation told us we were 
approaching the residence of man. 

Arrived at the brow of a gentle but extensive 
slope, a most delicious scene burst upon our view. 
Accustomed as we had been for the last week to 
nothing but the unvarying Desert flat, we could not 
believe our eyes, as we gazed upon the beautiful 
picture so suddenly spread out before us. 



THE BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT. 255 

At some distance below the spot were we stood^ 
the interval filled in with trees, shrubs, and under- 
wood of various colours and kinds, lay a fresh 
water lake. Numerous wild-fowl sat swinging 
lazily on its mirror-like surface, whilst, not far from 
the water's edge, among the trees, was the Bedouin 
encampment to which we were bound, consisting 
of a few mud huts, and numbers of black canvass 
tents. 

So perplexed had we been, during the heated 
hours of the day, with the numberless rivers, creeks, 
and lakes, which had been starting up on all sides 
of us at every step we took, that it was some time 
before we could persuade ourselves that this was not 
a more perfect form of mirage. However, after 
winding down among the acacias and flowering 
lupins, and approaching so near that we could hear 
its tiny wavelets breaking upon the shingle, we no 
longer doubted, but rejoiced exceedingly, and in- 
stantly felt equal to anything that might befall us — 
even death itself, we agreed, would not, after all, be 
so very bad in such a spot. 

As we approached the village, some of our cap- 
tors rode on ahead of us, and, as we heard after- 
wards, informed the sheikh el-belted " (village 
chief) that Allah in his goodness had enabled them 



256 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



to take possession of a caravan of Jews and dogs;" 
but whether the latter epithet applied to us, or the 
pilgrims which accompanied us, w^e were not able, 
nor did we deem it worth while, to determine. An 
immense posse of women and children came out to 
greet us, and, as they laughed immoderately and 
threw stones at us, they tended not a little to in- 
crease our vexation. 

The first thing to be done, after pitching our 
tents in this very nest of Bedouins, was to see the 
sheikh ; and notice having been sent us that he was 
ready to receive us, we left the ladies under the 
care of one of the dragomen, and, with Mohammad, 
we repaired to the chief's residence — a capacious 
mud hut, covered over with stra\v, at one end of 
which, on a carpet, surrounded with the principal 
men of the tribe, he reposed; and a picturesque 
group indeed they formed in their crimson robes 
and " kephias," or head dresses, of Damascus silk. 
On a carpet opposite the sheikh we were motioned 
to take our seats, and the discussion commenced. 
At a glance we could see that we were in a fair way 
of instant liberation (for the sheikh and his advisers 
were evidently very frightened at the extent to 
which matters had gone), and that though we had 
been advertised as " Jews and dogs," it was very 



WE AKE TAKEiS^ BEFOP.E THE SHEIKH. 257 



plain that we were English travellers^ who had been 
stopped in the most inexcusable manner, when on 
their way across the Desert to Jerusalem. 

Being called upon by the sheikh to state our 
grievance, we passed his remark on to Mahommad, 
who had taken his seat behind us, and whom, now 
that we turned round to bid him come forward, we 
found, as it were, stripping for the conference. He 
had already removed his sabre from his side, kicked 
off his shoes, and loosened his sash; but as we 
were in a hurry to commence, he just delayed one 
moment Avhile he pushed his fez more towards the 
back of his head, in order to display to greater ad- 
vantage his copper countenance, burning with just 
indignation in our behalf ; and then, by a series of 
small jumps, which he performed with a cork-like 
buoyancy, quite wonderful in a man of his size and 
weight," he gained the centre of the hut. With 
the utmost deliberation, striking his loose bags 
backwards between his legs, he seated himself on 
his heels, raised his arms above his head, and calling 
on Allah ta witness the truth of what he was 
about to say, he streamed forth for the space of a 
quarter of an hour a host of winged words in proof 
of the rascally way in which we had been stopped 
and carried away prisoners; and how that, we being 

s 



258 



EASTER^^ EXPERIEXCES. 



princes of the blood royal of England, there was 
no doubt, that if the affair was noised abroad. Her 
Majesty Queen Victoria would certainly send a 
great army to exterminate all the Bedouins that 
breathed ! 

Mohammad having brought his narration to a 
close, the men that had captured us were called 
upon for their story, with which they complied, 
half-a-dozen always speaking, or rather shouting, at 
the same time : then IMohammad interrupted them ; 
then they interrupted Mohammad ; then the sheikh 
tried to interrupt both ; then the effendi that was 
noting down all that was said interrupted everybody 
— altoo'ether it was the most intricate wranc^le that 
it is possible to conceive ; till at length the sheikh, 
laying his stick on to the shoulders of every one 
within his reach, and imposing silence, proceeded to 
give sentence* 

He apologized to us for the treatment Vv^e had 
received; said that his men had exceeded his orders; 
that they had stopped us merely in the hope of 
extorting money; that he, the sheikh, disapproved 
of the whole proceeding; and, finally, assured us 
that he would send the culprits in irons to Cairo, 
there to receive punishment at the hands of the 
Egyptian government. 



WE ABE ALLOWED TO GO FKEE. 



259 



Everything having been settled in this pleasant 
manner^ at least so far as we were concerned, we 
made our salaams to the sheikh, and retired to our 
tents ; but not before we had made him promise to 
allow us an escort of his own men, to ensure our 
not being stopped again whilst travelling through 
his territory. 

As darkness had already settled over the Desert, 
we determined to risk passing the night among the 
Bedouins, as Mohammad assured us that we should 
be quite safe; for, as he expressed it, the sheikh 
was evidently an ^^homme d'esprit," and one who 
respected us, as being Englishmen and gentle- 
men. 

Placing our pistols beneath our pillows, and 
attaching our trunks to the tent pole, we went 
quietly off to sleep, and awoke as usual in perfect 
safety. 

By the time the sun was up, we had breakfasted, 
and put our caravan once more in motion. Accom- 
panied by the promised escort, and numbers of foot 
pilgrims, we formed quite a strong party, mustering 
altogether about fifty men. 

We encamped at sunset after a march of eight 
hours, having had the mountains of Suez on our 
right all day. 

. S 2 



260 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



This will show how much we had been taken out 
of our way ; for we ought to have been near the 
sea coasts and had about as much business with the 
Suez mountains as with the Himalayahs. 



WE PURSUE OUR JOURNEY. 



261 





CHAP. XXL 

EL-ARISH. 

Once more our own masters^ we pushed on fast 
and cheerfully for Palestine; we had ceased to 
regard our vagrant life as a novelty, and had as 
much settled down to it as if we had been at it for 
years. 

The packing and unpacking of our trunks twice 
a-day was no longer the inconvenience it had been ; 
" man wants but little here below/' and we always 
took care to arrange that ^^ittle " uppermost in our 
portmanteaus. We positively luxuriated in a 
motion which, when first we mounted our cainels, 
nearly dislocated our whole persons, but which now 
swayed us gently off to sleep whenever we were so 
minded. Thanks to our tremendous appetites, we 
used to dine without complaining, day after day 
with no variety, upon hashed mutton and maccaroni ; 
in fact, we relished everything except the contents 
of our water skins; and, notwithstanding all our 
efforts, we could not even tolerate the water w^hich 
we carried along with us, and which in the Desert 

s 3 



262 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCESe 



formed such a very necessary ingredient to our state 
of perfect happiness. But it was no wonder, for as 
it became each day more filthy and discoloured^ we 
found it always a little ahead of our efforts to rough 
it. Bad as it was the first day after drawing it 
fresh from the well^ it was a great deal worse by 
the next evening, after an exposure of eight hours, 
in a hot sun, on a camel's back; for it had attained a 
rich brown colour, and to the taste was very like 
what I could fancy water might be in which a 
quantity of boots had been boiled ; and therefore so 
nasty, that in order to drink it we were obliged to 
put all majmer of nice things into it, and then, shut- 
ting our eyes and thinking of Soyer, to fancy it a 
new kind of soup. 

The poor pilgrims who followed our caravan 
drank of it with avidity; and as we had given the 
dragoman directions to let them have as much as 
they wanted, so long as our own supply did not run 
short, we were rejoiced to see that the potage a la 
Desert which we bad voted so nasty was appreciated 
in one quarter at least. 

At sunset, on the third day after taking leave of 
the Bedouins, we encamped in a little oasis beneath 
some palms, about a mile from a place called Gatieh; 
and whilst dinner was preparing, we shouldered our 



BIYER OF EGYPT. 



263 



guns for the chance of a partridge^ and walked off 
to see the remnants of the wall and fortifications 
that Dr. Robinson speaks of. 

They crown the summit of a gentle elevation^ 
and were built by Napoleon I. during his Eastern 
campaigns^ to serve as a link in the chain of com- 
munication which he had established between El-» 
Arish, the frontier town of Syria^ and Cairo : large 
mounds and pottery fragments^ scattered over a large 
area^ bear silent v/itness to the size of the ancient 
town of Cassim, which once existed here. 

Close to the wall before alluded to is a large well^ 
w^hich was sunk by Mohammad Ali, for the use of 
the caravans passing between Syria and Egypt; 
and on the summit of a sand hill is a handsome 
tomb of an Arab Saint. 

On the day after leaving Gatieh we were to pass, 
according to our charts, the spot where once flowed 
Gihor, " the river of Egypt ; " and about noon we 
certainly did cross what appeared to be the bed of a 
river long since dry. But as the term " river of 
Egypt " would seem to refer to the Nile, whence 
came a revenue in harvests," we passed away an 
hour, after our day's march, disputing as to the cor- 
rectness of our maps ; but coming, after much talk, 
to no very definite conclusion, we dropped the 

S 4 



264 



EASTEEX EXPEEIENCES< 



subject until we should arrire at the river of El- 
Arish^ which we knew was another candidate for 
the title " river of Egypt." 

V^ e vrere now travelling onwards in the hope every 
day of seeing the sea. from which we made out we 
could not be very far distant ; and on the morning of 
April 1st, having reached some high table-land, the 
blue expanse of the Mediterranean appeared on our 
left, distant some three or four miles. Remembering 
the date^ we refrained from immediate rejoicing, 
until we were quite certain of its reality — just 
balancing in our minds the possibility of its being 
^' mirage." 

At night we encamped at a considerable elevation ; 
and sitting after dinner in our tent-doors, with our 
coffee and chibouques, we gazed upon the ocean-like 
Desert stretching far away southwards, in one vast^ 
unbroken plain, to the bases of the blue mountains 
of Akaba. The whole scene, steeped in the deepening 
purple of sunset, was completely divested of the 
barren and desolate appearance which it otherwise 
would have had; and^ as we dreamed over our pipes, 
the ever invisible, but constantly heard, desert bells 
soundino' faintlv in the distance, we were almost 
inclined to doubt the f\ict of our being so far away 
from ereen trees and civihsation. 



OUPv TENTS ARE BLOWN DOWN, 265 

As darkness crept over the Desert, ^Ye were 
enabled to distinguisli the camp-fires of another 
party, at a great distance olF in the plain below ; but 
being uncertain whether they belonged to travellers 
like ourselves, or to Bedouins, we gave orders to 
keep our own fires low for fear of attracting their 
attention. 

During the night it rained heavily, and blew great 
guns." Nor was the sweetness of my repose en- 
ha^nced by being awoke, a little after midnight, with 
the canvass sides of the tent flapping and banging 
on my face. After shouting to Mohammad for about 
half an hour — for I had no idea of turning out myself 
in the cold — I managed to make him understand 
that our house was on the point of forsaking us, 
when he got up, and, with the help of the camel-men, 
put matters right again. 

The first streak of daylight saw us striking our 
tents, and putting our caravan in motion for El- 
Arish, for we had a long day's march in prospect, 
and we wished to make the most of the cool morning 
hours. Before starting, we directed our glasses 
down into the plain, in order to arrive at the meaning 
of the fires which we had seen on the previous 
evening, and found, to our satisfaction, that they had 
proceeded from an encampment of travellers such 



266 



EASTEEN EXPEEIENCES, 



as we Yyeve, and whose long^ serpent-like caravan 
was now winding over the Desert in the direction of 
Palestine. 

Towards the middle of the day, having both been, 
as it were, travelling along opposite sides of the same 
triangle, we met at the apex ; and, after firing our 
guns into the air by way of salutation, we joined 
forces, and journeyed on towards El-Arish in com- 
pany. 

During the afternoon, we came upon a large salt 
lake, which it was necessary to cross, in order to 
shorten our day's march. Our poor camels, already 
taxed beyond their powers of endurance, by reason 
of the unusually soft nature of the sand over which 
they had been toiling since an early hour, were 
hardly in condition for the attempt; for a camel, 
the instant you take him off the sand, is considerably 
more awkward than a duck out of water. But if 
you not only take him off the sand, but bid him 
cross a sheet of water, though not more than a foot 
in depth in any one part, yet, with the bottom as 
smooth and slij^pery as ice, I must confess that, 
vulgarly speaking, you hardly do your rights by 
him." 

The advance part of our caravan, consisting of the 
camels belonging to the Americans and Prussians, 



ONE OF OUR CAMELS BREAKS ITS LEG-. 267 



had already commenced their hazardous undertaking 
when we arrived. Nor were our notions of the 
facility of transit indulged in any longer^ when w^e 
saw that one of the camels (I suppose a weak one^ 
or one more heavily laden than the-others)^ had 
slipped down and broken its leg. After in vain 
trying to raise it again^ the Arabs began to remove 
its burden ; and the lamenting of the poor animal^ as 
they removed each article of baggage^ preparatory to 
leaving it behind^ was truly piteous. Of course, 
having broken its leg, it was of no further use to us, 
and it would have been impossible to have carried 
him along with us. As it was evidently in great pain, 
we wished to shoot it at once; but one of the men 
promising to remain behind, to perform this last sad 
duty, we proceeded on our journey, and arriving all 
of us in safety at the further side, we pushed on to 
El-Arish. 

The approach to El-Arisli is among an infinity of 
sand-hills, some of which are so steep that, in de- 
scending them, I fully expected my cameFs own 
weight would prove too much for the strength of his 
fore legs, and that he would fall on his nose, in- 
evitably pitching me over his head. However, with- 
out any such catastrophe, after a ride of ten hours 
and a half, we pitched our tents beneath the walls 



268 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



of the frontier town^ whicli^ for a place not likely 
ever to see much of a siege, is strongly fortified. 

Here the bao-g-ao^e of all our camel-men and some 
Jews, who formed part of our caravan, was sub- 
mitted to a strict examination by the Egyptian 
custom-house officers, though ours, by the whole- 
some administration of a small huchsheesli^ was 
exempt. 

On reviewing our forces, we found that four camels 
had dropped by the way from sheer fatigue, and had 
been left as food for vultures ; whilst, of the large 
body of foot pilgrims who had accompanied us from 
Cairo, several were missing. We were assured that 
Allah would take care of them, and bring them all 
safely to Jerusalem ; but, unless by the intervention 
of some divine miracle, I much fear that the poor 
fellows, who had left their homes and families far 
away in India, and the furthest East, to do homage 
at the shrines of Mecca and the Holy City, found 
their last resting-places in the Desert. So frequent 
must be the instances of pilgrims who never find 
their w^ay home again, that one does not know how 
sufficiently to admire the devotion w^hich they bear 
to their God and creed, in thus forsaking all, and 
going forth in thousands, year after year, to almost 
certain death. 



OUK AMERICAN FRIENDS, 



269 



On inquiring whether the camel^ which we had 
left in the salt lake with the broken leg, had been 
despatched as promised^ we were perfectly astounded 
to hear that he had been left to die of famine and in 
pain. The only excuse they gave was, That it 
was the will of Allah ; that it was fated this camel 
should die of hunger and a broken leg; and/' as 
one of the men said, rather would I shoot myself 
than, by shooting the camel, alter the course of 
fate." 

After we had dined, we addressed a note to the 
American gentlemen, asking them to pipes and coffee 
in our tent, but received their regrets that a pre- 
vious engagement would prevent them accepting our 
kind invitation," as their Prussian friends were going 
to partake of brandy and water and gin sling " in 
their tent: however, they hoped that we would 
bring our chibouques and cut in " with them. So 
accordingly, having sent our pipes on before, we 
followed presently in the wake of the portly Mo- 
hammad bearing a fanoose. 

As we anticipated, we spent a most uproarious 
evening over the aforesaid decoction of hot water, 
gin, and lemon-peel ; and the almost brotherly terms 
which the Americans were on with the four Prussian 
Counts at once surprised and amused us, sweet 



270 



EASTERN EXPEHIENCES. 



converse'' being quite out of the question^ since 
neither understood the other's language: indeed, 
Arabic was the only language common to both, and 
of that but one word was known to either. Need I 
tell any Eastern traveller, that that word was 
Taib ! " (Good !) 

We arrived first at the Americans' tent this 
evening, so were witnesses to their mode of saluting 
the Prussians, which was as follows : — 

The tent door being drawn aside to admit them, 
the four continental Counts entered, first removing 
their hats as they gave us Bon soirJ"^ " Hilloa ! " 
shouted our jovial Americans, ^^here you are! hovv'- 
d'ye get along? sit down." " J"^ vous remercie mille 
foisp answered the Prussians in chorus. Here came 
a pause; for though the Americans looked exces- 
sively happy themselves, and seemed disposed to 
render their guests so also, they were not able to 
express their ideas except by a series of gymnastics, 
which, though they eventually succeeded, was a work 
of time. 

However, the table, loaded with sundry black 
bottles, cigars, and a large jug of hot water, backed 
by the truly hospitable countenances of our enter- 
tainers, took less time to explain the order of the 
evening than did their well-meant dumb motions. 



WE SPEND AK EVENING WITH THEM. 271 

and numerous ejaculations of the one word " Taib ! " 
I was completely non-plussed at the very commence- 
ment of the evening by the senior of the two 
Americans, who, in pressing the contents of the 
black bottles upon his guests, turned to me to render 
gin sling " in French. As I was unable to assist 
him, he resorted to his own method, which was by 
collecting the several ingredients of this delightful 
compound, and pushing them across the table, 'mid 
a perfect volley of Taibs." But, as I said before, 
we managed some, how to spend a most sociable 
evening. The gin sling " was voted the only thing 
worth drinking, the cigars the only Vv^eeds " worth 
smoking, albeit they came from the far West," and 
were tremendously large and tremendously strong ; 
and we all talked a great deal ; and the Prussians 
said something that the Americans didn't understand, 
and the Americans said something that the Prussians 
didn't understand; and then they laughed heartily 
at some joke that had never been made — for they 
could not have laughed at what had been said, since 
neither understood what the other had been talking 
about. Aifd so the evening passed away; and 
towards midnight we retired to our several tents, 
the Americans declaring to us, in an under tone, that 
the Prussians were no end of bricks ; " whilst they 



272 



EASTEEX EXPEHIEXCES. 



on tlieli' side expressed this affection for the Ame- 
ricans. ^' Mon Dieu^ ces Americains I mais lis sont 
charmants gar cons I " 

Before leaving El-Arish^ we sent Mohammad to 
the governor of the town^ with the letter from the 
Cadi at Belbeys concerning the lost vratch^ and were 
soon after waited upon by one of his rawasses to 
request our attendance. 

Squeezing our way through the bazaars^ we ar- 
rived presently at the house of his Excellency. A 
knot of pipe-bearers and soldiers made way for us to 
pass, ushering us immediately into the audience 
chamber — by no means a magnificent one. 

At the further end of the room^ on a low mud- 
built divan^ ruuning all rounds reclined the governor^ 
surrounded with his eftendis and learned men. 
Having made our salaams^ we took our seats on his 
right ; and Mohammad having squatted on his heels 
immediately in fronts we spent the next few minutes 
in silence^ sipping the coffee and puffing the pipes 
wliich were offered us. Without entering into the 
details of all that passed^ I shall content myself with 
saying, that notwithstanding all the wise suggestions 
of the effendis^ the governor found it impossible to 
render us any immediate assistance in the matter, 
but promised to lay violent hands on any suspicious- 



MY FRIEND RELIEVED OF HIS WATCH-KEY. 273 



looking individual that arrived in the town from 
Belbeys^ and held out hopes that the next month or 
two would see my friend in possession of his stolen 
property. His Excellency then went on to say that, 
since my friend had lost his watch, the key belonging 
to it could be of no further use to him ; and that as 
he also possessed a watch, the wondrous dimensions 
of which he took this little opportunity of displaying 
for our admiration, he would feel obliged by my 
friend presenting him with his key, to supply the 
place of one which he had lost some months back. 
Accordingly, the same evening my friend sent up 
his key, which certainly was of no further use to 
him, since he now saw little chance of ever recovering 
the watch to which it belonged. 



T 



274 



EASTEEX EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. XXII. 

PALESTINE. 

We were now in Syria^ and though not quite clear 
of the Desert^ our eyes were continually relieved by 
broad stretches of grass-land, which, to us, seemed 
deliciously bright and green. 

On the second day from El-Arish, we passed, 
in the early morning, a spot marked in our maps 
as Eephia, where two simple granite pillars in- 
formed us that we stood on the boundary line 
between Asia and Africa. And now, in truth, I 
voted myself a rapid traveller, as, with a short pre- 
paratory run, and unassisted by any Avinged Pegasus, 
or any of those locomotive carpets one reads about 
in the Arabian Nights," I leaped in a moment of 
time from one continent to the other. 

In early days, when first one went to school, and 
was lectured by one's tutor, from the pages of 
"Arrowsmith," upon the relative positions of Asia 
and Africa ; and when the extent of one's topo- 
graphical knowledge associated aught that was 
Asiatic with the streets of Ispahan, or the far-off 



BOUNDAEY BETWEEN ASIA AND AFRICA. 275 



plains of Siberia ; and aught that was African 
with the mud-huts of Hottentots, or the jungles of 
CafFre-land — in those days I little thought that the 
time would come when, during a morning's ride^ I 
should pass from one great quarter of the globe to 
another — yet so it was. 

Soon after losing sight of Rephia, a sudden 
descent took us into the village of Khan-Younes; 
and as our caravan wound down among its gardens 
and groves of prickly pear, the atmosphere laden 
with the odour of the sweet lupin, it gave us, as 
Eothen so happily observed, quite the sensation of 
bathing, coming so suddenly out of the hot, arid 
Desert into the midst of such a bouquet : and we ap- 
preciated in a slight degree what must have been the 
feelings of the Israelites on first entering the pro- 
mised land, after their forty years' sojourn in the 
Desert. 

Into a small plot of ground in the centre of the 
village, surrounded with a wooden paling, we were 
turned, whilst a couple of guardians took us into 
custody, preparatory to seeing us all safely im- 
prisoned in quarantine at Gaza. After waiting 
here for about half an hour, our caravan once more 
streamed forth upon the park-like plain which in- 
tervenes between these towns. Our exit was not 

T 2 



276 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



a triumphal one^ but^ like a plague-stricken troop^ 
we rQarched slowly and mournfully along. Guards 
before and guards behind marshalled us onwards, 
ever and anon shouting to distant children, plaving 
in the road, to flee from us, and to the women, to 
get them into their houses whilst we passed ; and in 
every way treating us as if we had been one and all 
in the last stage of an autumn Cairene plague. 
Joke and laugh as we might, we could not but feel 
that we were about the most wicked, sinful people 
on the face of the earth. 

At sunset we arrived at our quarantine quarters, 
outside the town of Gaza. The prison gates were 
opened to receive us, and, when the last of our 
caravan had wound into the desolate court-yard, 
they were closed heavily upon us, and we were 
requested to consider ourselves under arrest for the 
next five days. 

For the next hour we were in a state of the 
greatest confusion, unpacking the camels, and each 
one selfishly, but openly, striving to select the 
cleanest-looking cell for himself. However, before 
it was quite dark, we had managed to shake down 
as comfortably as could be expected, taking into 
consideration the positively filthy state of our new 
quarters. Free as we were then from anything like 



QUARANTINE AT GAZA. 



277 



plague, we were all seriously of opinion that the 
next five days would about do for us/' or else that 
we should be let out of quarantine, carrying along 
with us the seeds of contagion. 

The form of the quarantine quarters at Gaza re- 
minded me very much of an English cattle-market— 
viz,^ four high stone walls, enclosing several rows 
of sheds, or rather cells, at right angles to each 
other, making a square, with a well in the centre. 
At one corner, and a little apart from the cells 
allotted to us, were the quarters of the " medico," 
an Italian doctor in charge of the quarantine, con- 
sisting of a few consecutive apartments on the 
ground floor, with a small wooden paling and a few 
shrubs in front. Even this residence had a me- 
lancholy, half-starved appearance, but was certainly 
seen to advantage when contrasted with the sur- 
rounding buildings. 

Insupportable as were the long, tedious hours of 
the day, night brought us no relief — sleep visited 
not the pillows of the wretched inmates of the Gaza 
quarantine; for the countless ^^B flats," and myriads 
of fleas, with which the walls and floors of our cells 
were alive during the day, seemed all to assert equal 
claims to a share of the beds, which we fondly 
fancied were intended only for us. 

T 3 



278 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



On the evening of the last day in quarantine we 
were all ordered out into the court-yard, and, being 
drawn up in line, the medico" advanced to the 
front, and, after a few preliminary questions ad- 
dressed to each on the state of his or her health, 
the word was given to Show tongues," which we 
accordingly did, in a manner that would have led 
any one ignorant of quarantine regulations to sup- 
pose that we were all expressing the most profound 
contempt for the poor medico. 

At sunrise the next morning, to our great joy, 
we cleared out of quarantine; and bidding Mo- 
hammad meet us on the further side of the town 
with the camels and horses — for my friend and I 
had hired animals of the latter class to carry us to 
Jerusalem — we strolled with one of the other dra- 
gomen through the bazaars of Gaza. 

Independently of the great Scriptural interest at- 
tached to this town, as one of the five Philistine 
cities, Gaza as it now stands is an exceedingly 
beautiful town, surrounded with large olive plan- 
tations, and dense groves of pomegranate and lemon 
trees. By far the larger portion of it is built of 
stone, which, when compared with other second- 
class Eastern towns, gives it a very imposing ap- 
pearance. Nor is the interior so disappointing as 



RUINS OF ASKELON. 



279 



is often the case in Syria^ for^ being on the high 
road for caravans passing from Beyrout and Da- 
mascus to the Suez and Cairo markets, its bazaars 
are at all times well filled, and rich in all kinds of 
merchandise. A hill to the east of the town was 
pointed out to us as the spot to which , Samson 
carried the gates on the night of his escape. 

Leaving Gaza behind us, we now rode on through 
a rich country towards Askelon, passing, in about 
two hours from the time of starting, the brook 
Escol. The modern Askelon is only a small village, 
to the north of the site of the old town, almost 
within reach of the waves of the Mediterranean, 
and prettily imbedded in a grove of olive and date 
trees. As we intended pitching our tents at Ash- 
dod, or Sdoud, so called by the Arabs, we sent on 
the camels, whilst we remained to partake of lunch 
amid the ruins of the old town. 

Its traces are so faded and scattered as scarcely 
to be noticed, and all our attentions were devoted 
to some lofty stone walls and fast-decaying for- 
tifications, of the date of the Crusades, situated on 
some high ground immediately overhanging the sea. 
After remaining here for an hour or so, wandering 
about in the shade of the numerous trees, which cast 
their cool reflection upon the old grey walls, we 

T 4 



280 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



continued our ride to Ashdod, where we arrived a 
little before sunset. Of the ancient toAvn there are 
little or no traces remaining. 

We pitched our tents upon a grassy knoll close 
to the Arab village, whence we had a delightful 
view over the plain towards Askelon and the sea. 
Whilst we were at dinner, some friends of the 
dragoman came out of the village, to tell us to be 
sure and keep a strict watch during the night ; for 
that a few hours previously, at a distance only of a 
few miles, a great battle had taken place between 
two hostile Bedouin tribes, and that marauders 
would siu^ely be about. 

On receiving this information, we sent up a 
request to the sheikh of the village, to be provided 
with a sufficient guard to prevent our being robbed; 
but the good man, not liking to give occasion to 
either of the hostile parties to find fault with him, 
politely declined ; his excuse being, that the well- 
known bravery of Europeans would surely enable 
them to take care of themselves I " 

It was on occasions of this kind, when Mohammad 
knew from experience that there was no real danger 
to anticipate, that his great pluck showed itself. 
Accordingly, the last thing at night, just as we 
were on the point of jmtting om- lights out and 



MOHAMMAD MOUNTS GUAED. -281 

getting into bed, he appeared at the tent door — his 
Bagdad capote folded round him, his head tied up 
in a handkerchief, and his loaded carbine under his 
arm, giving him very much the appearance of a 
Ramsgate bathing-woman about to embark on 
foreign service — and stated his intention of watch- 
ing over the safety of the camp till the sun rose. 

To prove his zeal in our behalf, he used to bother 
us for the first hour with challenging all the dogs 
and jackalls that came near the tents, and frequently 
blazing away with his carbine ; but this only lasted 
for an hour, and then he used to go to sleep, which 
apparent neglect of his duty we never said any- 
thing about, as it enabled us to follow his example. 

The next day being Sunday, we had intended 
remaining encamped; but as, at an early hour, 
the Sdoudites commenced crowding round our 
tents, and we feared their being seized with too 
irresistible a passion to appropriate some of our 
effects, we packed our camels and went on our 
journey to Jerusalem. 

Having so lately disembarked from our Desert 
voyage, the extreme beauty and fertility of the 
country that we rode through, after leaving Ashdod, 
taxed our powers of appreciation almost too severely ; 
and, not content with regarding it from my saddle. 



282 



eastee:n" experiences. 



I allowed my horse to wander where he chose among 
the camels^ whilst I lingered on foot far behind the 
caravan^ walking wherever the grass was tallest^ 
picking whatever flowers were fairest, and resting 
at odd moments under any tree the dense foliage of 
which was an excuse for day-dreaming. 

Late in the afternoon we entered quite a Saxon 
forest of holm-oak, through which we continued to 
ride for nearly an hour ; nor was it until the shadows 
of the trees on either side of us lay lengthening 
along the glades, that we caught sight of the white 
walls and minarets of Eamlah. 

Passing on our left a very beautiful tower of 
Saracenic architecture, marked in our maps as the 

Martyr's Tower," we rode round to the south side 
of the town, where we encamped on a sort of com- 
mon, without furze bushes, for the night. Here, 
also, as at Ashdod, we were advised to keep a good 
watch, as some English travellers, who had pitched 
their tents four days previously in the same spot, 
had had them cut into during the night, and a con- 
siderable amount of property stolen. 

Bad as this news sounded at first, our spirits very 
soon rose again, when we considered how decidedly 
adverse the chances were to such an event occurring 
again for some time. The next morning, as soon as 



AN EXCURSION TO JAFFA. 



283 



we had finished breakfast^ we mounted our horses^ 
intending to employ the day in a visit to the town 
of J oppa, or^ as it is now called^ JaiFa. 

Leaving Eamlah^ riding in a north-westerly direc- 
tion^ we skirted the plain of Sharon, which lay 
stretched out before us bright with the morning sun, 
and perfectly crimson with the countless poppies 
which grew in the springing corn. An hour's ride 
-brought us to the small town of Lydda, in the Arab 
tongue Ludd. Here we saw a handsome tomb, which 
the inhabitants informed us contained the bones of 
St. George the champion of Christendom ; they would 
also have us believe that he was born here, not- 
withstanding the strong claims that Cappadocia urges 
to having cradled him in infancy. 

Striking across the plain seawards, we entered 
Jaffa at noon ; and forcing a passage for our horses 
along its narrow and crowded streets, we made our 
way to the house of our Consul, Assad-el-Kayat, a 
Syrian, but a man of some little note, and who for 
many years has held this office under our Govern- 
ment. The Consul himself, we were sorry to find, 
had gone to Jerusalem on business ; but his brother 
received and entertained us most kindly. His house 
faces the sea, and joins on, or is very close, to the 
Armenian Convent, which served Napoleon I. for a 



284 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



hospital, and where was enacted that dreadful tragedy 
— the poisoning its sick and wounded inmates by 
wholesale. The Consul's house is furnished in the 
European fashion, the room in which we sat being 
lighted by means of a bow-window, immediately 
overlooking the small and incommodious port of 
Jaffa. After our long ride, we were glad of a few 
minutes' rest on his divans, and of an opportunity of 
refreshing ourselves with the coffee which was offered 
us. 

Our host placed himself at our disposal, to show 
us all that would be likely to interest us in Jaffa. 
First, he procured us admission into the convent 
before alluded to ; then, mounting higher up into the 
town, he took us into an antiquated but very 
wretched house, and, bidding us look around, to say 
whether we saw anything remarkable. On our 
obeying his instructions, and then answering in the 
negative, he said, This is the very house which be- 
longed to Simon the tanner, and where tarried for 
certain days St. Peter." As we saw no reason for 
disbelieving so probable a fact, we were induced to 
leave the house with more reverential feelings than 
we had on entering ; though I must confess that it 
pleased me more to think I was in the self-same 
town where, beyond a doubt, St. Peter lived, than 



JAFFA. 



285 



standing in the room about which there was merely 
a tradition as to its having been the lodging of the 
Apostle. 

The town of Jaffa is very imposingly built on a 
promontory of some elevation^ surrounded with 
orange and pomegranate groves of almost tropical 
luxuriance. Fortunately for us^ our visit happened 
to be made on a market day ; and outside the walls 
of the town^ shaded by numerous acacias, had been 
erected long rows of gaily-colored booths. Merchants 
of all classes added their voices to the general hubbub, 
eloquent in praise of their own wares. Here you 
might expend a few piastres in native fruits — there 
as many pounds in horses. The seller of sherbets 
rattled his brass cups, as he passed from group to 
group, setting forth in a stentorian voice but half the 
real price of his lemon, sugar, and water mixture. 

After our three weeks of Desert solitude, such a 
scene of noise and excitement proved nearly too 
much for us ; but at last we managed to tear our- 
selves away, and, mounting our horses, we retraced 
our road to Eamlah, 

I shall never forget the exquisitely delightful ride 
we had back to our encampment, across the plain of 
Sharon. The sun, as it sank towards the Western 
horizon, threw a flood of light and color over the 



286 



EASTEE^s^ EXPERIENCES. 



whole country far and near, making equally distinct 
the ears of corn and poppies of Sharon, and the 
distant crags of the mountains of Judsea. We were 
not sorry to arrive at length at our encampment, our 
appetites sharpened by our long day's ride. 

Ali, the dragoman who had accompanied us to 
Jaffa, whose horse had not been quite in such good 
condition as ours even at the commencement of the 
day, and who had been obliged to drop behind, rode 
into the camp whilst we were chatting outside the 
tents, waiting for dinner. His poor animal showed 
such evident signs of distress that we all gathered 
round to pity it. Its owner, a native of Ramlah, 
who formed one of the circle, was so vexed that his 
horse had not acquitted itself creditably, that, to our 
surprise and disgust, and before we could prevent 
him, he drew the sword which hung at his side, and, 
swinging it over his head, brought it down edge- 
vvays on to the horse's back with such force that he 
made a gash of an inch and a half at least in length. 
I have no doubt that he would have repeated this 
atrocious act of cruelty if we had allowed him, and 
fortunate it was for the poor creature that we were 
so near. Our indignation was unbounded, and 
mustering all the Arabic of which we were masters, 
we expended it in abusing to the utmost of our 



AFFECTION TO ANIMALS IN THE EAST. 287 



power this unwarrantable exhibition of anger^ and 
finished by asking him in English^ "Where he 
thought he was likely to go to ? " 

Happy as is the average existence of an Arab 
horse^ he is ever subject to these savage attacks at 
the hands of his Moslem owner ; and though without 
number are the romantic tales which delight us in 
England of the affection shown to animals in the 
East^ yet, in the face of them all, I am inclined to 
think that, if the chance was given to any ex- 
perienced sensible old Arab horse of exchanging his 
lot with an English roadster, and commencing life 
again, there would be little doubt of his availing 
himself of it. 



288 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



CHAP. XXIII. 

JERUSALEM. 

So far had we come with our camels ; but we now 
bade them adieu, for henceforward, till the end of 
oiu' journey, oiu^ tents and baggage were to be car- 
ried by mules. It was like parting with old friends. 
But whatever sorrow was felt on the occasion was 
on our side : they must have been only too pleased 
to be quit of the trees and flowers of Palestine, and 
to be on their way back to their beloved Desert ; so 
we watched them departing, burdenless, in long file 
from the walls of Ramlah, till they were quite out of 
sight, almost regretting that they moved so gaily 
and pleasantly away from us. From Ramlah to 
J erusalem it is one day's journey ; and seeing that 
the mules which had been promised us at some dis- 
mal anti-sunrise horn- this morning had not made 
their appearance (as indeed we had expected) by the 
time we had finished breakfast, towards nine o'clock, 
we mounted om^ horses, and taking one of the dra- 
gomen with us, left Mohammad to follow when he 



MOUNTAINS OF JUDiEA. 



289 



could; as, if we failed to arrive at the Holy City 
before sunset, we should find the gates closed for the 
night — and a lodging on the cold ground till sunrise 
the next morning, even on the Mount of Olives or 
in the valley of Jehoshaphat, we hardly thought de- 
sirable. 

The first part of our ride lay across a wide plain, 
bounded towards the east by the long rugged chain 
of the mountains of Judaea, upon the further side of 
which we knew the Holy City lay. For some days 
past their broken summits, purpled by distance, had 
intercepted all further glimpses into Palestine ; but 
now that we were fast approaching them, and could 
even discern the bushes and brakes which filled the 
clefts in their rocky sides, how fraught with interest 
became the very road we were following, and which 
a few miles on was lost to view among their defiles ! 

In talking of the Holy Land I have been charged 
by some of my friends with pumping up" an 
amount of enthusiasm I did not really feel. Without 
denying the charge, I can only say, that if I could 
have pumped up " a little more than I did, during 
that ride among the mountains of Judaea, and when 
at every turn of the road we thought to catch sight 
of the minarets of Jerusalem, I would have done so 
gladly, so sure am I that all the happiness I felt 

u 



290 



EASTEPtX EXPERIEXCES. 



on the occasion woulcl^ if possible^ have been en- 
hanced. 

At noon we entered the first defiles of the moun- 
tains, considerably to the south-west of Eamlah ; and 
toiling during four hot sultry hours continuously up 
among their rocky gorges, we passed, about four 
o'clock, the little village of Emmaus, which hung to 
the mountain side, almost hidden from view among 
its olive and orange groves. 

Certain now that our day's journey was drawing 
to a close, we all became anxious as to who should 
be the first to see the Holy City ; and the road only 
admitting of our riding in single file, each one might 
have been detected endeavouring to distract the 
other's attention to something quite unworthy of 
notice in the rear, so as to put his own horse into the 
leading place. But as we rode on, gaining hill-top 
after hill-top, and still there was yet another hill-top 
on beyond, our heads literally ached with excitement, 
till, a little before sunset, all our expectations were 
set at rest by turning a shoulder of the mountain, and 
finding ourselves almost within a stone's throw of its 
castellated walls. 

Up to this point I had been actuated by all those 
feelings which any one sitting at home in England, 
planning a tour through the Holy Land, would natu- 



OUK FEELIIS^GS ARE OUTRAGED. 291 

rally perceive pervading his mind at the thought of 
loitering morning after morning in the bright sun- 
shine of the East among those spots^ and gazing 
upon those scenes, which must have been so familiar 
to the Saviour of the world ; but now that I am once 
more at home, thinking over a tour which I have 
concluded instead of planning, I am quite clear in 
saying, that on the very instant of my coming in sight 
of Jerusalem they all dispersed themselves, nor was 
I again under their influence, except at very rare in- 
tervals, during my residence in Palestine. 

All the way from Emmaus I had been striving to 
realise the fact of my riding over the same ground 
so often traversed by our Lord ; and I trust to my 
reader's imagination, more than to any words of mine, 
to form a due estimate of the manner in which that 
mysterious awe, w^hich for some hours past had been 
taking hold of our minds, was so completely violated 
by the sudden appearance of three or four " hotei- 
touters," w^ho, whilst the words, There is Jeru- 
salem ! " were still warm on our lips, rushed from 
various hiding-places upon us, and flourishing large 
printed cards in our faces, set forth in wretched 
English the peculiar advantages of the several hotels 
to which they belonged. It was no use our declining 
their services, they were as obstinately anxious to 

u 2 



292 



EASTEEX EXPERIEXCES. 



direct our choice of lodgings^ as any little London 
yagabond is to bear the weigbt of the parcel you 
have a fancy to carry in your hand instead of your 
pocket. 

Putting ourselves at last^ from the purest motives 
of self-defence^ under the guidance of the most re- 
spectable of the "touters/' we entered the city 
throuo'h the Jaffa o^ate, situated at the head of the 
Valley of Gihon; and passing the open space in front 
of the old towers of Hippicus^ where was a motley 
assemblage of pilgrims^ horses^ and baggage-mules^ 
and descending for a short distance a steep and very 
noisy street^ risking our horses' knees at every step, 
we took the first turning to the left, below the 
Pool of Hezekiah, and soon after dismounted at the 
door of Mr. Hauser's Mediterranean Hotel. 

As in Cairo you engage a dragoman, so in Jeru- 
salem your first thought is for a guide, whose business 
it is — no matter whether he be Christian or Mus- 
sulman—to have all the points of interest connected 
with the Holy City at his fingers' ends. It so 
chanced that the man who applied to us, as we sat 
at breakfast the morning after our arrival, for a 
situation was a Christian. But as there are almost 
as many different classes of Christians in Jerusalem 
as there are sects of Protestants in London, perhaps 



VIA DOLOROSA. 



293 



it will be as well to add that he was a Latin Ca- 
tholic, by name Giuseppe. 

Considering how numerous are the detailed de- 
scriptions of Jerusalem at present before the public, 
I have not the least intention of trespassing upon 
my readers' time, by attempting what so many abler 
men have done before I was in existence — to say 
nothing of a topographical account of the city being 
mainly interesting to those only who are actually on 
the spot, or who have but just returned with the 
ruined palace of Herod, or the house of Santa 
Veronica, still vividly present to their minds' eye. 

Following Giuseppe's guidance down the shady 
side of the Via Dolorosa, stopping every dozen 
yards, as one would do in a picture gallery, to do 
little more than glance at a spot which ought to have 
been invested in our minds, as Christian travellers, 
with the deepest interest, we made our exit, on the 
east side of the city, through St. Stephen's Gate, in 
the shade of which a small knot of Turkish soldiers, 
their muskets left to take care of themselves in a 
corner, lay stretched on the ground, playing at 
draughts. 

Standing beneath the old wall of the Temple, and 
looking across the deep Valley of J ehoshaphat, which 
sweeps southwards far below the city, our eyes fell 

u 3 



294 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



upon the Mount of Olives^ rising abruptly before us. 
At its foot^ on the further side of the Brook Kidron, 
lay the Garden of Gethsemane^ its extent marked 
out by a low stone wall^ enclosing eight aged olive 
trees, which tradition fondly asserts to be the very 
ones which witnessed our Saviour's agony on the 
night before His crucifixion. 

Descending the steep side of Mount Moriah, and 
crossing over the Brook Kidron by means of a small 
bridge hard by the chapel erected over the tomb of 
the Virgin, we presently bent our heads as we passed 
through the low arched doorway which leads into 
Gethsemane. Long before I had seen this garden, 
which of all spots in or about Jerusalem I had 
thought would interest me the most, I had formed 
not only a pleasing, but what I believed to be a true 
notion of its character, from that pretty sketch which 
Mr. Bartlett gives in his Walks about Jerusalem." 

To say that I was disappointed, hardly expresses 
the exact state of mind in which I saw Gethsemane 
with my own instead of Mr. Bartlett's eyes. 

Had it not been for the fact of my having just 
descended Mount Moriah and crossed over the Brook 
Kidron, I could have fancied myself standing, during 
the Dog Days, in the kitchen garden of a bran new 
villa at the back of Torquay, or any other of our 



GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. 



295 



English watering-places, the peculiarities of which 
are, I dare say, familiar to most of my readers— viz. 
four hot glaring walls, at the bases of which runs a 
bed of dry pebbly mould in which nothing ever 
grows, a few paths at right angles to each other, 
composed of loose shifting gravel which will never 
bind, and in the centre three or four apple trees, 
which seldom, if ever, bear any fruit. In attendance 
upon the eight olive trees, which attract the tra- 
veller's attention by their ancient and desolate ap- 
pearance, is a Franciscan monk, who spends his 
time in watering the rose trees which cling to their 
gnarled trunks, and in receiving the few piastres 
which of course you put into his outstretched hand 
as he ushers you out of Gethsemane. 

A short and not very precipitous climb brings you 
to the summit of the Mount of Olives, whence you 
have by far the most imposing and complete view of 
Jerusalem* 

Surrounded by a chain of mountains, the Holy 
City rises proudly up from amongst them. All 
traces of its decay and desolation are lost in distance. 
Its mass of houses with their countless domes, and 
the numerous minarets and towers which are seen 
spiring up in all directions, give it a truly pic- 
turesque appearance. 

u 4 



296 



EASTERX EXPERIEXCES. 



Im m ediately below us^ occupying the site of the 
Temple^ lay the Haram-el-Shereef, with its charm- 
ing gardens and melancholy cypresses ; and, in the 
centre, the magnificent Mosque of Omar, its emerald 
walls resplendent with a flood of sunlight. More 
distant, rose the mighty cupola and domes of the 
Sepulchre Church and the massiye tower of Hippicus ; 
while, to the left, we could see Dayid's tower on 
Zion, and, near to it, the Armenian Church of St. 
J ames, and the glistening turrets of the Xew Pro- 
testant Church. To the north, in a wide cuxle, we 
could discern the mountains of Ephraim, with Ebal 
and Gerizim — the mounts whence blessing and 
cursing were proclaimed; while all the country to 
the south was occupied by the hills of Judah. Xor 
is the eastern yiew less beautiful, though totally 
deyoid of life. Oyer a confused mass of barren 
mountain peaks our eyes wandered, far away oyer 
the Desert of Quarantana*, to the intensely blue 
waters of the Dead Sea : aboye which, to the east, 
towered massively, like some huge wall, the moun- 
tains of Moab — whence Moses, upon Nebo, directed 
his gaze oyer the Promised Land. The plains of 
Jericho, through which flows the Jordan — its course 

^ In this Desert our Saviour i> said to have spent the period 
of His temptation = 



HOUSE OF DIVES. 



297 



to the Dead Sea marked by a long line of foliage, 
which fringes its banks on either side — were seen in 
all their extent to the left. 

By the time we reached our hotel we had 
visited, if Giuseppe was to be believed, pretty 
nearly all the places, with the exception of those 
beneath the roof of the church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre, mentioned in the New Testament. It almost 
seemed as if, in the grouping of them so closely 
together, the convenience of succeeding generations 
had been studied ; for instance, pausing in one part 
of the Via Dolorosa, our guide, clearing his throat, 
said, "You see this building. Sir? This was the 
palace of Herod ! This is where St. Peter made his 
denial! — that (pointing with his finger to a spot a 
few yards in advance) is where the cock crew ! — this 
house belonged to Santa Veronica, who offered the 
napkin — now shown at Rome on Good Fridays — 
to our Lord as he passed on his v/ay to Calvary ! — 
and just there. Sir, is where Simon the Cyrenian 
was compelled to bear the cross ! " 

A few steps farther on he drew our attention to 
two very antiquated buildings, and astonished us 
by asserting that the one to the left belonged to 
Lazarus, whilst the other, on which still remained 
traces of red paint, had been the residence of Dives ; 



298 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



and^ for the first time in our lives, we perceived that 
the beggar had been equally well lodged with his 
wealthy neighbour. He was not at all perplexed 
by the fact of these two characters having been 
introduced in a parable, nor when we told him that 
Lazarus was only spoken of as lying at the rich 
man's gate. The former difficulty he overcame by 
saying that our Lord, whilst uttering the parable, had 
stood in this spot, taking the two houses in question 
as examples ; and, as to the latter objection, he was 
inclined to doubt that two mere travellers could be 
better informed than one who had been born and 
bred on the spot ! 

Whatever laudable plans the generality of tra- 
vellers may have sketched out in their own minds 
as to the disposal of their time whilst in Jerusalem, 
and whilst they are still under the influence of those 
feelings of holy romance which take possession of all 
on their first entry into Palestine — once in the Holy 
City, they find themselves plunged, nolens volens^ into 
the regular routine of sight-seeing, and are hurried 
along with the stream. First day. Via Dolorosa and 
the Mount of Olives; second day. Church of the 
Sepulchre and Mosque of Omar ; third day, a ride 
round the exterior of the City ; and so on till their 
guide informs them that they have finished Jeru- 



AMERICAN SIGHT-SEERS. 



299 



salem^ and must now give way to the newly-arrived 
batch of travellers^ whose tinkling mules are crowding 
close to the steps of Mr. Hauser's hotel, and who 
may be heard engaging the rooms you are expected 
to vacate on the morrow. 

The same Americans who had treated us so 
gloriously at El-Arish, boasted to me, on a subse- 
quent occasion, that they had done " J erusalem in 
three days ; a feat which they had accomplished by 
rising each morning before sunrise, and working 
hard all day. But in them perhaps it was excusable, 
as their intention was to get along " through Italy 
and Greece, and be back in New York before the 
moons of another two months had waxed and waned. 

The moment we were enabled to dispense with 
the services of our guide we did so ; and managing 
to keep the landlord in a good humour with us, we 
spent a few days in real enjoyment, rambling lei- 
surely in the environs of the city. But the feverish 
state of excitement in which we had lionized during 
the first two or three days had brushed all the 
bloom from our visit ; nor could we afterwards find 
it possible to realise any of that enthusiasm with 
which we had hoped to have been filled whilst 
Jerusalem was yet in the future. 

From the street in which the hotel is situated. 



300 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



a short passage^ for foot passengers only, lined on 
either side with the shops of dealers in relics and 
antiquities, conducts the traveller into a species of 
piazza or paved square. 

During the Jerusalem season, or, in other words, 
during that period immediately preceding and sub- 
sequent to the celebration of the Greek Easter, this 
square, one side of which is entirely occupied by 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is the focus of 
all the noise and bustle of the citv. 

The pavement is so covered with the wares of the 
numerous vendors of all manner of holy curiosities, 
that, in order to cross from one side to the other, 
the traveller is obliged, for every three direct steps 
in advance, to make two either to the right or left 
and sometimes backwards. Large heaps of rosaries 
oppose him in every direction. Beads from Mecca, 
shells from Bethlehem, and chaplets of amber are 
thrust in his face at every step. Pilgrims of all 
kinds and in every variety of costume, from the 
high-crowned conical hat of the Persian der^dsh, 
and the white burnoose of the swarthy Bedouin, to 
the unpretending paletot and broad wide-awake of 
the sandy-haired German, are to be heard descant- 
ing in loud tones upon the approaching Easter. 
Knots of Turkish soldiers pretend to preserve order 



CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 301 



by bullying all around tbem. The atmosphere is hot 
and heavy with the clouds of incense which escape 
all day from the open doors or windows of the 
Church ; whilst, above all the din and noise outside, 
can be heard the roll of the organ, accompanying 
the chaunting of the priests as they engage in the 
continual round of services within. Such is the 
daily character of the scene in the court-yard before 
the doors of the Holy Sepulchre Church at Easter ! 

Except that he escapes for a time from the sun's 
glare, the traveller finds, on entering the church, that 
he has only left one scene of crowded excitement for 
another. Here are no idle loiterers, all have some 
object in view ; and without any warning of by your 
leave," he is pushed here and there and everywhere, 
with immense difficulty making his way from one 
part of the sacred edifice to another. Wherever he 
turns his eyes he sees enthusiastic Hadjis kneeling, 
bowing, kissing, and lighting tapers. Action of 
some kind is the order of the day with all save him- 
self. 

Carried along with the crush, he enters the small 
marble chapel erected beneath the great dome of 
the church over our Lord's Sepulchre. As there 
is only room for three or four at a time, and as no 
one makes even a show of giving way to another. 



302 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



the reader may well imagine the difficulty with 
which he sc[ueezes himself in for just one glance at 
the sacred tomb. 

Leaving the circular churchy he then passes into 
the large chapel allotted to the Greeks^ by far the 
most splendid and most gorgeously decorated of any 
within the precincts of the whole building. In the 
centre of this chapel he will most probably observe, 
as I did, a crowd of pilgrims collected round an 
object affording them intense interest; and on edging 
his way through them, he will find them engaged in 
bending the knee to and kissing the half of a globe 
raised above the marble pavement. Eound this 
semi-spherical substance is drawn a black line with 
a spot over the centre; and if he ask the meaning of 
it, he will be told that it marks the exact centre of 
the world, and as such is reverenced accordingly. 

Not likely to betray his ignorance by hinting at 
the possibility of any other spot being situated over 
the centre of a world which he has ever been 
taught to consider as round, he will say nothing, 
but gaze mysteriously upon the object in question, 
as if for the first, and perhaps the last, time in his 
life he was standing immediately over the exact 
centre of the world ! 

After paying visits to all the most interesting 



INTEHIOR OF THE CHURCH. 



303 



points of the church, and wanderuig for a time 
among the numerous arched corridors and vaulted 
chambers which lead on all sides from beneath the 
great dome, and where, during the Easter solem- 
nities, many pilgrims are lodged, he will find himself 
in the chapel devoted to the Latins, which, hardly- 
rejoicing in a fair amount of daylight, possesses an 
air of solemn grandeur. The centre of attraction 
in this chapel is situated behind an iron grating, 
between the bars of which he will perceive, when 
his eyes have accustomed themselves to the gloom, 
a portion of a column. To this column his guide 
will inform him our Lord was bound when He was 
scourged. For a moment he will wonder how any 
pilgrim is enabled to pay a further adoration than 
by gazing at it, as he has already done himself, 
through the grating; another brief moment of 
patience, however, solves the difficulty. A Hadji 
approaches, and taking up a pole from a neighbour- 
ing corner, he thrusts it between the bars till it 
touches the sacred column^ then drawing it out, he 
presses the extremity to his lips and retires. 

At last the traveller enquires the way to Calvary, 
and being prepared, from the accounts of other 
travellers, to find it somewhere on the first floor, is 
not so startled as he might be by being told, the 



304 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



first turning to the right, upstairs." Following in 
the stream of pilgrims, he ascends a short flight of 
stone steps, and partly bewildered by the dense 
crowd of worshippers collected into so small a space, 
the clouds of incense, the chaunting of the priests 
engaged in the service, and the blaze of light pro- 
duced from innumerable gigantic candles, and 
perfect showers of golden lamps, he makes fruitless 
attempts to realise the fact of his standing on the 
summit of that mountain where, eighteen hundred 
years ago, a very different crowd had assembled to 
gaze — some in grief, but almost all in ridicule and 
triumph — upon the suffering Saviour as He hung 
here upon the cross between the two thieves. 

Above perhaps the most gorgeously furnished altar 
that he has yet seen, and half hidden by lamps and 
candles, is a cross to which is nailed a life-size 
image of the Saviour, resplendent with jewels, 
numerous gold and silver ornaments, and hung 
about with flowers. Beneath this altar he is shown 
the three holes made by the crosses, the centre one 
being cased with gold. To the right, on the removal 
of a metal plate, he will see, if he kneel down, the 
natural rock beneath the flooring, a deep fissure in 
which is said to be the result of the earthquake 
which followed the expiration of our Lord. 



SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. 305 

I have no wish to make disparaging reflections 
upon the Holy Sepulchre Churchy so as to lead my 
reader to the conclusion that I regretted my visit, 
for so novel and exciting a scene did I consider it, 
that I often repeated it without ever failing to reap 
a great deal of amusement — much as I lament that 
its atmosphere was only calculated to amuse a 
passing hour. That it was no fault of mine I am 
quite convinced, for no one could have ascended to 
Calvary, or pushed aside the crimson curtain which 
veils the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre, with more 
sincere intentions of realising the sanctity of the 
spot. 

Squeezing myself wherever I turned with an 
amount of labour far from pleasant, I seemed to 
become callous to all holy associations, and found 
myself devoting my whole attention to the general 
architecture of the building, and the curiously at- 
tired crowd which thronged me, instead of to the 
objects for the glorification of which all these 
highly decorated chapels and splendid altars were 
intended, and for the adoration of which so many 
thousands were then filling the streets of Jeru- 
salem. 

So captivating is the appearance which the far- 
famed Mosque of Omar presents to any one standing 



306 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES 



on the summit of Mount Olivet, that the traTeller 
seldom rests content until he has seen it from a 
nearer point. As it is entirely enclosed with the 
houses of scrupulous Mussulmen, this little fancy of 
the traveller would seem at first sight to be fraught 
with such difficulty as to be almost out of the 
question ; so that he is not a little pleased, on 
reaching his hotel, to find that a very moderate 
bucksheesh will procure him an order to ascend to 
the roof of the Turkish Governor's house, whence a 
most complete view is had of the site of the old 
Temple, now occupied by the Mosque, and which, 
after Mecca, ranks as the next most holy place in the 
Moslem mind. 

In the centre of an extensive area, lawned from 
end to end with soft green turf, its surface diversi- 
fied with groups of acacias and melancholy cypresses, 
rises the magnificent Mosque of Omar. It is situ- 
ated on a dais of white marble, raised a few steps 
above the turf: its form is octagon, and, being built 
or overlaid with some green substance, presents a 
very gorgeous apj^earance, as the sun strikes on its 
polished surface. Surrounding it, on the outer edge 
of the raised dais, are numerous colonnades of white 
marble and several mausoleums^ the small white 



HARAM-EL-SHEEEEF. 



307 



domes of which are built of the same material, and 
sparkle in the sun. 

Our visit to the Haram was made a little after 
noon ; and, beneath the shade of the acacias, obedient 
to the chaunt of the mueddin to mid-^day prayer, 
were collected many devout Mussulmen, engaged in 
prostrating themselves with their faces to the earth, 
towards the sacred building in the centre. 

As all entrance to the Mosque of Omar is denied 
to the Christian, and as it is even said that instant 
death is the reward of the man who shall dare to 
violate its sacred precincts, the Haram-el-Shereef 
is invested in the Giaour's mind with a mystery so 
profound, that as he stands on the roof of the 
Governor's house, gazing down upon its charming 
gardens, its porticos, and fountains of glistening 
marble, he is seized with a longing, like the man 
who stands on the brink of a precipice, to precipitate 
himself headlong, let what will be the result. 

History tells only of four Franks who have had 
the boldness to fathom its mysteries — viz.^ Mr. 
Richardson, in 1818, and Messrs. Bonomi, Cather- 
wood, and Arundale, in 1838, who, by some extraor- 
dinary combination of circumstances, managed, not 
only to gain access to the gardens and mosque itself. 



308 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES, 



but even to make most mimite drawings of all tlie 
interior arrangements.* 

On the TTestern exterior of the Haram-el-Shereef 
is situated the spot where the remnant of the ancient 
rulers of Jerusalem have purchased the right of 
lamenting and wailing over the downfall of their 
nation^ and the departed glory of then' beloved 
Temple. The approach to it is thi'ough the Jews' 
quarter, and, as usual, the dirtiest part of the city. 
However, the labyrinth of narrow and squalid lanes 
which are passed on the way here terminates in an 
open space, beneath what is suj^posed to be a portion 
of the old Temple wall. The lower part of it is 
composed of very large bevelled stones, against 
which numbers of Jews in their fur caps, with open 
copies of the Talmud, from which they keep repeat- 
ing passages, lean their foreheads in the deepest 
dejection. Ranged along the opposite wall, seated 
on the ground, the most part with their faces buried 
in their hands, are the women, who, what time that 

* Since mv visit to Jerusalem and the dispute about the 
Holy Places, I am told that the Mussulman world has been 
forced to abandon many of its scruples about Christians enter- 
ing the mosques, and that the Haram-el-Shereef is no longer 
looked upon as the grave of any Frank who shall penetrate its 
mysteries. 



jews' wailing place. 



309 



they are not peering between their fingers at the 
traveller^ appear to be engaged in prayer, at times 
sendino; forth a dismal OToan. Numbers of other 
men are to be seen walking up and down, reciting 
in a loud tone passages from the Talmud, and, fre- 
quently stopping, sway their bodies to and fro, while 
gazing with sorrowful countenances towards the site 
of the Temple; then, suddenly stepping forwards, 
they spread the palms of their hands upon the wall, 
and kiss, with tears in their eyes, the great bevelled 
stones. Altogether it is the most affecting, and, I 
thoroughly believe, the most genuine expression of 
grief. 

The evening of the day on which I visited the 
J ews' place of wailing was so exquisitely bright and 
balmy, that, though the rapidly declining sun was 
already warning all the inhabitants of the city to 
collect within its walls before the closing of the 
gates, I could not resist the temptation of a short 
stroll into the country ; so, climbing upon the mas- 
sive old grey walls, which look down on the side into 
the valley of Hinnom, I walked along them till I 
came to the Zion Gate. 

At this gate are collected the lepers, about fifty 
in number, who always remain here to implore the 
charity of all persons entering or leaving the city. 

X .3 



310 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



They are quite distinct from the rest of the 
inhabitants of J erusalem, who look upon them, as of 
old, as unclean; and being thus forced to intermarry 
with themselves, they perpetuate the disease. The 
moment I came in sight, about half a dozen ran for- 
ward to ask alms, displaying as they did so their 
fingerless hands and stunted proportions to excite 
my pity. 

Passing through the gate, I followed the road 
which runs for a few hundred yards on the left 
beneath the city walls, and then winds down the 
mountain side, past the Pool of Siloam. Arrived at 
the fountain of Enrogel, I lay down upon the turf 
in the shade of the small dome which covers the 
well. 

Hidden by the intervening hills, the sharp angle 
of the temple wall on the summit of Moriah is all 
that is here to be seen of Jerusalem ; whilst immedi- 
ately to my right, hanging on to the bare rock, was 
the wild village of Siloam — a strange mixture of 
mud huts, tombs converted into dwellings, and black 
canvass tents. 

Numbers of fierce-eyed Bedouins, with long guns 
slung across their shoulders, groups of savage un- 
veiled women, and swarms of naked children of both 
sexes, playing with hungry wolf-like dogs, and firing 



FOUNTAIN OF ENROGEL. 



311 



off sharp volleys of bucksheesh cries the moment a 
traveller is seen^ offered me no inducement to look 
more closely at Siloam, 

In all my walks about Jerusalem^ I found no spot 
so pretty as Enrogel. Surrounded with foliage and 
cornfields, one forgets the sterility and desolation 
by which, on all other sides, the Holy City is charac- 
terized; and often, during my sojourn of three 
weeks here, I whiled away many a pleasant hour 
with my sketch-book and pencil, listening to the 
soporific dripping of the water from the moist sides 
of the well. And it is these quiet solitudes, more 
than all the churches and altars which are erected 
over the most sacred spots, and with which the city 
itself teems, that form the great charm to the tra- 
veller, who really visits Jerusalem with a view of 
bringing home to his mind the deeply-interesting 
fact of being where our Saviour spent the greater 
part of his life. However careless a man may be of 
that which concerns his soul, when he leaves the 
noise and bustle of the city, and descends to Enrogel, 
or climbs the side of the Mount of Olives, or wanders 
forth on the road to Bethany, with the same scene 
before him upon which our Saviour must so often 
have gazed, it is impossible but that such moments as 
these must have their effect upon him, and make 

X 4 



312 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



him tliink seriously^ whether he be a believer in 
Cliristianity or not. 

Continuing my walk^ I left Enrogel^ and climbed 
to the summit of the so-called Mount of the Pro- 
phets; and^ gaining from thence the Mount of 
Olives^ I once more looked upon the Holy City as 
the sun was commencing to set^ gilding with its rays 
the multitude of mosques and minarets which tapered 
up into the evening sky within its walls. 



313 



CHAR XXIV, 

MAK-SABA, 

We were hanging one morning out of the hotel 
window, gazing on the crowded street beneath, and 
consoling ourselves with the notion that we had 
kiUed, not only all the lions of the city itself, but all 
those of any notability within the twelve-mile cir- 
cuit, when the voice of Mohammad conversing with 
the landlord stole upon the silence of the salle-a- 
manger : — " Oui, c'est justement 9a ! Nous allons 
partir tout de suite pour le Mer Mort ; nous nous 
ferons passer par Jericho et le Convent de Mar-Saba! 
- une affaire de trois jours — pas plus ! " 

Drawing our heads into the room, we turned to 
our dragoman to know who was on the point of 
starting for the Dead Sea, Jericho, &c. ; and learn- 
ing that he was alluding to ourselves, we felt the 
mercury of our spirits rise several degrees, at the 
thought of quitting the white glaring walls and hot 
streets of the city, and again taking the field, even 
for the purpose of killing more game. 

That evening we had an interview with the 



314 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



sheikli through whose territory we were to pass — 
a magnificent specimen, as far as height, breadth 
of chest, and a handsome face go, of what a man 
ought to be. On the payment of a very consider- 
able number of piastres, he gave us a species of 
passport, by the possession and exhibition of which 
we were to travel unmolested through his do- 
minions. 

Havino; sent on our tents and bao;orao;e-mules at 
sunrise the next morning, with a part of the sheikh's 
escort of soldiers, we mounted our horses about 
eight o'clock, a.m., and followed in their steps with 
the three remaining Bedouins. Surmounting a 
spur of the Mount of Olives, and leaving the little 
village of Bethany on our left, we soon after entered 
the scorching wastes of the Desert of Quarantana, 
among the deep ravines of which we went slowly 
riding till past noon. 

When we had almost completed our descent from 
the high land about Jerusalem into the plains of 
Jericho, the sheikh of our escort turned to us, and, 
with many salaams, invited us to send our baggage- 
mules to Jericho — (not in the sense in which we in 
England often invite creatures and things which are 
obnoxious to us to betake themselves) — and to go 
ourselves and dragoman to his encampment, which 



BEDOUIN HOSPITALITY. 



315 



he said was not far off, there to refresh ourselves, 
and afterwards to proceed on our journey. As we 
were anxious to see something of Bedouin life 
among the mountains, we accepted his invitation; 
and, turning to the left out of the road, and follow- 
ing him, we came in about half an hour in sight of 
the camp. A dozen large savage dogs, showing 
every tooth in their heads, came tumbling over 
their own growls " to welcome us. The noise they 
made roused the whole tribe, and numbers of men, 
snatching up their guns, ran together from all quar- 
ters towards us : the instant, however, that they 
saw us in the company of their sheikh, their fierce 
countenances became radiant with smiles, and, 
beating the dogs back, each one strove to outdo 
the other in helping us to dismount, and in many 
other little ways doing the civil." 

Our horses having been led away, we were con- 
ducted by the sheikh to his own tent in the centre 
of the camp : and all their best carpets having been 
rolled up into a divan, we seated ourselves thereon ; 
and, whilst food was being prepared for us in 
another tent, we remained undeserving objects of 
the most intense admiration, or perhaps I ought to 
use the word curiosity. A few of the principal 
men, and the sheikh's little son — a child of four 



316 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



years old — were tbe only ones that were privileged 
to sit in the tent with us^ whilst the rest of the 
tribe formed such a dense crowd round the door as 
totally to exclude the daylight. The men, with 
hardly an exception, were all fine handsome fellows, 
but I cannot say as much for the women. 

The sheikh's child afforded us much amusement, 
being about the most peevish, worst tempered spe- 
cimen of hmnanity in miniature that I ever had the 
misfortune of being in contact with. He seemed 
to prefer squalling to speaking ; but for this fancy 
he really had more excuse than most children, 
being so loaded with chains, and coins, and orna- 
ments of all kinds, which made such a jingle when- 
ever he moved, that perhaps he found himself inca- 
pable of hearing his own voice, unless he uttered it 
in any tone short of a scream. 

As all the men and women vied with one another 
in currying favour with their chief, they resorted to 
the expedient of cramming the unfortunate infant 
with anything eatable they could lay their hands 
on ; the result of this was, that the child was so 
fat that he could hardly open his eyes, and, carry- 
ing more flesh than his small bones were capable of 
sustaining, he rolled and tumbled about, much in 
the manner I could fancy any small statue would. 



A DINNER A-LA-MODE« 



317 



which had been carved out of a huge jelly fish^ 
instead of a block of marble. 

The better to preserve our composure, with so many- 
curious eyes all round and about us, we requested 
to be provided with pipes ; and then lying back on 
the divan, we conversed at our leisure, by means of 
Mohammad, with the sheikh, Aboo Sea, as he called 
himself, and his chief men. In due time the re- 
freshment which had been promised was dished 
up" — or rather pitched down" — consisting of a 
great heap of white dough pancakes, to which were 
presently added two earthen bowls, one containing 
oil and the other butter, mashed up with a quantity 
of powdered sugar. Being a little uncertain 
whether we were to make our repast off the oil 
and butter, merely using the bread pancakes as an 
accompaniment, or vice versd^ or to divide our atten- 
tions equally between each, we requested the sheikh 
to lead off. This he did by first baring his right arm, 
and then, breaking off a large morsel of bread, he 
dipped it in the oil, and after rubbing it about in 
the butter and sugar, he threw his head back and 
dropped it into his open mouth; afterwards he 
sucked his fingers with immense relish, and mo- 
tioned us to do likewise. Tucking up the sleeves 
on our right arms, we imitated his manoeuvre 



318 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



exactly — though the sucking of the fingers was not 
performed with such apparent relish: then all the 
other men followed our example, till the sheikh's 
turn came again, when he led off the second round. 
By degrees, from first thinking the mixture actually 
nauseous, we came at last positively to like it, and 
we began to watch that every one ^^ate fair." 
When the heap of dough was consumed, all but a 
few fragments, and the oil and the butter dishes 
were emptied, except what adhered to the sides, 
the women were told they might have the rest ; nor 
did they seem at all annoyed that they had not 
been invited to partake of the meal before. Coffee 
and pipes followed ; and when the sun began to 
sink towards the west, we re-mounted our horses, 
and, bidding adieu to our Bedouin friends, we rode 
on under the guidance of the sheikh to Jericho, 
where we arrived a little before sunset, finding the 
tents pitched, camp fires lighted, and every prepara- 
tion being made for our dinner. 

Of the city of Jericho nought now remains to 
tell even of the ground which it covered, though 
the spot where we pitched our tents is universally 
believed to be its site, about three miles to the west 
of the Jordan, and the same distance to the north 
of the Dead Sea. 



AN EASTERN NIGHT SKY, 



319 



Withdrawing to a short distance from the camp, 
we stretched ourselves beneath an acacia. The 
night was intensely clear; and, as we gazed up 
among the myriads of stars above us, we could not 
help feeling what a much more overwhelming 
notion of infinite space (if it is possible to use 
such an adjective in connection with a word which 
necessarily implies something finite) one forms 
here in the East than in England. An eastern 
night sky is so much more pure and black, and the 
stars so much brighter, that, even with the naked 
eye, one is able to single out each separate heavenly 
body, thus bringing home to the mind so much 
more vividly the fact of their hanging in space, and 
to detect that, though some are to all appearance 
smaller than others, it is because they are so much 
farther away. 

A burst of merriment from the tents made us 
suddenly leave thinking of the stars, and turn our 
attention to whence it proceeded. Our Bedouin 
attendants, assisted by the moukris^ or muleteers, 
having heaped together an immense pile of dry 
wood in the centre of the camp, had just set fire to 
it, and, fanned by the gentlest of night breezes, the 
flames went leaping up high above the tents. As 



320 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



they seemed about to amuse themselves in some way 
or anothei', we drew near to watch. 

Holding each other's hands, and forming a ring, 
they commenced dancing and singing round the fire. 
Getting more boisterous, they at length broke 
away from each other, and danced oiF in different 
directions, always converging again after a few 
seconds within the glow of the flames. When 
tired with this figure, they all formed in line, arm 
linked in arm, and one of them acting as leader 
stood in front. Producing mysterious noises in 
their throats, intended I believe to mimic hyaenas 
or jackals, or perhaps lions or tigers (but I am not 
sure which, as I did not enquire), they commenced 
to sway their bodies from right to left ; then, fol- 
lowing the motions of their leader, they shook off 
their capotes ; then they tore off their head-dresses, 
allowing the long horse-tails of hair on the tops of 
their heads to stream over their shoulders. At one 
period of the dance they all drew their swords, 
which flashed for an instant in the fire-light, as they 
struck them simultaneously into the earth; then, 
stripping till they were almost entirely naked, they 
went dancing in and out among the half-buried 
blades, clapping their hands above their heads, and 
singing, or rather yelling, at the tops of their voices. 



BEAUTY OF THE JOHDAN. 



321 



As the fires burned low, their dancing energies 
flagged, and they were soon all sleeping, wrapped 
in their capotes, around the fast-expiring embers. 
We also retired to our tent ; and, whilst our Arab 
attendants lay snoring at the door, and Mohammad 
talked in an under-tone in Italian to Halifa, the 
cook, as they washed up the tea-things together, I 
employed myself in writing the daily quantum of 
my journal, with particulars of our visit to the 
Bedouins, and the dance round the camp-fires at 
Jericho. 

After watching the mules with our camp effects 
start across the plain towards the Dead Sea, on 
their way to the Convent of Mar-Saba, whither 
they were taking a request from us to the brethren 
to prepare supper and a night's lodging against our 
arrival at sunset, we mounted our horses, and, ac- 
companied by Mohammad and our Bedouin guard, 
rode on to the Jordan. 

Arrived at the river, we were charmed with the 
excessive beauty of the spot, supposed to be the 
same where the Israelites crossed under Joshua. 
Not more than thirty yards in width, the Jordan 
here rushes round a bend with fearful velocity 
towards the Dead Sea. The numerous large trees 
which grow on either side, stretching their branches 

Y 



322 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



far over its muddy waters^ scarcely allow of any 
sunshine except just in tlie middle of the stream. 
Shrubs of all kinds^ and of almost tropical luxu- 
riance^ rise high above the tangled underwood; 
whilst beneath the shade of acacias^ mixed with 
rhododendron^ oleander^ and all the most showy of 
Syrian flowers^ are seen fox-gloves, wild hyacinths, 
and blue hare-bells in the greatest profusion. It is 
here that the pilgrims bathe during the Easter 
festivals, and which ceremony we might have been 
witnesses of, had we chosen to delay our visit by a 
few days; but as we reclined upon the shelving 
bank with our chibouques, enjoying the warm 
morning aii', not yet heated by the mid-day sun, 
and the most perfect silence, enhanced, rather 
than broken, by the gurgling of the river, as it 
rushed along under the trees close at our feet, we 
came to a conclusion — perhaps it was an eiTone- 
ous one, yet nevertheless we did come to a conclu- 
sion — that it was better thus to visit the J ordan, 
than when those solitudes, in which we now luxu- 
riated, were violated by a collection of four thou- 
sand frantically-religious pilgrims of both sexes, 
some half naked, but the most paii: entirely so, 
engaged in dipping themselves and families in its 
waters. 



THE DEAD SEA. 



323 



Remounting our horses^ we turned their heads 
towards the Dead Sea^ and, leaving the foliage and 
wild hyacinths behind us, we struck across the 
desert plain, arriving at the Great Salt Lake, or, as 
it is called by the Arabs, " Bahr-el-Lout," L e. Sea 
of Lot, in about two hours' gentle riding. 

All the accounts that I had ever read of the Dead 
Sea describe it, and the surrounding neighbourhood, 
as one of the most dismal, sepulchral localities that it 
is possible to imagine. This may possibly be the 
case during the time of the kampseen, when the sky 
is overcast with clouds, and when the sulphureous 
vapours arise from its waters in such heavy masses 
as to shroud from view the fine mountains which 
tower up on either side ; but, whatever appearance 
it may present on such occasions, — and they must 
be few and far between, as it is seldom that a bright 
unclouded sun does not shine upon its blue waters- — 
it was not so to-day. As I stood upon the shingle, 
gazing over an expanse of water, so intensely blue 
that I could fancy the deepest nook in the Mediter- 
ranean, beneath the brightest of June suns, would 
have seemed green compared with it, the huge 
Moabite mountains rising abruptly from its azure 
depths on one side, and the high land above Mar- 
Saba convulsed into a hundred fantastic shapes on 

Y 2 



324 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



the other, the whole coloured with all the various 
tints that one ever sees in the chano-incr face of 
nature between sunrise and sunset, — I thought I 
had never looked upon any picture deserving of such 
enthusiastic admiration as the Dead Sea and its sur- 
rounding scenery. It is true that all is so scorched 
and barren, that not a leaf or blade of grass is here 
to give relief to the eye ; yet the blue surface of the 
lake itself, and the rich colouring in which the 
whole country round is steeped, is quite sufficient to 
atone for this : and I went away carrying with me 
reminiscences of a picture possessed of such peculiar 
beauty, that I might wander where I would over the 
wide world, and not meet with any spot which I 
could compare with it. 

Anxious to test the accounts of travellers touching 
the buoyancy of its waters, I disrobed myself, and, 
plunging in, was soon engaged in springing rather 
than swimming over its blue wavelets. At each 
stroke that I made, my head, arms, and entire 
shoulders, down nearly to my waist, rose above the 
surface ; nor was I able to keep my feet, whilst in 
motion, under water, so that my progress was ren- 
dered slow in the extreme. I even found that, 
w^ithout taking the trouble to turn on my back, if 
1 merely desisted from striking out, I remained 



BUOYANCY OF THE WATEE. 325 



motionless on the surface^ my head and shoulders 
well above water ; whilst^ on turning to look for my 
feet^ I found that they also were unable to remain 
below, and were sticking up behind. So long as I 
remained in the water, I found it most cool and re- 
freshing ; though immediately on gaining the land, 
it seemed as if I had emerged from an oil-tub ; and, 
on attempting to dry myself with a towel, I was 
obliged, after a most violent rubbing, to give it up 
in despair, and to put on my clothes, notwithstanding 
the clammy moisture which oozed from every pore, 
and which I found impossible to rectify by rubbing. 
This unpleasant dampness lasted for two or three 
days, in fact, until I was able to bathe in fresh 
water on my return to Jerusalem. To the taste, 
the Dead Sea water is nauseous in the extreme, 
most intensely bitter as well as salt, and burns into 
the skin like vinegar. Returning to our horses, we 
rode along the shingle, which was thickly strewn 
with lumps of bitumen, for some time; and then, 
striking to the right, among the limestone rocks, we 
pushed on, in order to reach the Convent of Mar- 
Saba before sunset. A most romantic ride of three 
hours brought us in sight of the two stone towers 
which guard the entrance to the convent on the 
western wall, and, soon after, we were knocking at 



326 EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 

the gates for admittance. On entering we found 
our mules already arrived and collected in a small 
court-yard on a level with the two stone towers, 
but at some height above the principal part of the 
convent. 

The Convent of Mar- Saba is Greek, and is one 
of the most curious in the whole of Svria. beino- 
strongly fortified, to resist the attacks of Bedouins, 
and is built hanging to one side of a deep and most 
precipitous ravine. From the entrance-gate down 
to the chapel, whence you may look over the 
parapet directly down into the dark glen below, we 
descended from ledge to ledge by means of stone 
staircases. Arrived at the lowest ledge, over against 
the chapel, we were conducted, by the brother who 
presides over the refectory, to the strangers' room — 
an extremely comfortable one, nicely carpeted, with 
a most luxurious divan, raised about three inches 
from the ground, running entirely round it, and a 
low deal table in the centre. It was lighted by two 
good-sized windows, commanding a view of the 
entu'e convent, which rose up immediately in front 
— a mingled mass of stone walls, small red-tiled 
houses, buttresses, and staircases, to the height of 
about 150 feet. 

Considering it was Lent with the Greek Church, 



CONVENT OF MAH-SABA. 



327 



we were provided with a most plenteous meal of rice 
and fowls, and then mounting to the flat roof of our 
room with our chibouques and coffee, we sat till a 
late hour, gazing with delight upon the romantic 
position of the old convent in the moonlight ; and 
when at last we threw ourselves on our divans to 
sleep, it was to be awoke at intervals by the chapel- 
bell tolling the hour of the night. 

With the first streak of daylight we were astir : 
but before leaving the convent, and whilst the mules 
were being packed at the gates, we were shown 
over it by one of the lay brothers. As we walked 
from one point of interest to another, he told us the 
convent was founded 1200 years ago by San Saba, 
a Greek monk, and that it had passed through more 
miseries and vicissitudes than perhaps any other 
establishment of the kind in the world ; that when 
Syria was invaded by the Persians, all the monks 
were massacred to a man, in proof of which he not 
only sold me, for the sum of a few piastres, a gi- 
gantic sort of pocket-handkerchief, upon which were 
depicted in the minutest detail all the horrors of the 
massacre, but he also took us to a cave, and, bidding 
us look through the grating which barred the en- 
trance, we shuddered at the sight of human skulls. 



328 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



to the number of 14^000^ heaped together^ a terrible 
memento of that day of slaughter. But I suppose 
this large number included not only those of the 
monks^ but also of the hermits^ with whom this 
valley teemed in time of yore ; and very likely, 
as we may conclude that the good monks made a 
certain amount of savage resistance, many of the 
Persians themselves. 

The chapel, like all Greek places of worship, was 
gorgeous to a degree, every square inch of wall 
being loaded with either painting or gilded ornament 
of some kind. Bidding adieu to the monks, we 
mounted from ledge to ledge by means of the stone 
staircases to the summit of the convent, on a level 
with the entrance gates, where we found our horses 
waitino; for us, the mules havino* o;one on before to 
Bethlehem. 

Three hours' ridino^ from Mar- Saba brouo-ht us 
within sight of the latter place, situated on the top 
of a liill, the citadel-like Convent of our Lady 
forming the principal feature of the town. The 
Bethlehemites are an industrious class, and all the 
country round is brought by them into a high state 
of cultivation. As we approached the town, we 
passed through very extensive vineyards, a most 
pleasing contrast to the desolation we had left 



CONVENT AT BETHLEHEM. 



329 



behind us at the Dead Sea. From time immemorial 
have the women of Bethlehem been famous above 
all the fair of Syria for their beauty; and seldom 
does any traveller return to England, careless though 
he may have been of the elegant grouping of mina- 
rets and palm trees, the effect of Moorish arcades, 
or sunset tints, without a few words in praise of 
the maids of Bethlehem. Long before he has seen 
their Madonna-like faces, his heart has warmed 
towards them from the mere fact of their being all 
Christians; and now as he stands watching them 
crowding from all sides, bareheaded, towards the 
church doors, obedient to the convent bell, green 
turbans, mueddin cries, prostrations five times a-day, 
and aught that savours of Mahomet, are for a time 
forgotten. 

As we intended remaining here for the day, and 
it was yet quite early, my friend and I rode round 
the town with Mohammad, in order to select some 
pretty spot where to pitch our tents. We at length 
decided upon a small field at some distance from any 
houses, in which were a number of olive trees, 
whence we had a most delightful prospect. Sitting 
in our tent doors, we looked upon Bethlehem rising 
in the immediate fore-ground, the hill-side clothed 
with vineyards and fresh green corn-fields, the red 



330 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



cliflPs about Mar-Saba^ the huge Moabite mountains, 
and all the country beyond Jordan. 

Having settled ourselves in our new quarters, we 
repaired with Mohammad to the convent. Built on 
the brow of the hill at the further side of the town 
from our encampment, it seemed reallv to require 
the massive buttresses by which it is flanked, to 
prevent it from falling over into the plain beneath. 
It is strongly fortified, the only entrance being 
through a small iron door deeply set in a wall of 
immense thickness. After partaking of some lunch 
in the refectory, we found our way into the chapel, 
where mass was being performed; and one of the 
monks volunteering to show us all that would be 
likely to interest us, we followed him with lighted 
candles down a flight of stone steps, leading sub- 
terraneously from one comer of the building. 
Threading our way along a succession of galleries, 
and past many small shrines cut in the rock, we at 
length arrived at the Chapel of the Nativity, a small 
chamber divided into two compartments, separated 
from each other by a few steps. The natural rock, 
out of which these two chapels are hewn, though 
for the most part covered with tapestry, showed 
itself in some places. From the ceiling pended an 
almost innumerable quantity of lamps, but as only 



BIRTHPLACE OF OUR LORD. 



331 



a few immediately over the altar were lighted, it 
brought out the small shrine, which glittered with 
ornaments and offerings of all kinds, into strong 
relief against the surrounding gloom. Our at- 
tendant friar, first devoutly kneeling and crossing 
himself, kissed a spot beneath the altar, which was 
explained to us when he rose, by the words engraved 
on a small plate of gold encircling it, " Hie de Vir- 
gine, Jesus Christus natus est." 

The second and lower compartment of the cave^ 
into which we descended by means of the few steps 
before alluded to, is much smaller than the first — 
in fact, is more like a deep recess. On one side we 
were shown the manger where our Lord was laid, 
and which, though it is said to retain its original 
form, is now overlaid with white marble : opposite 
to it, a small gold star, set in the pavement, marks 
the spot where the Magi knelt to offer their gifts to 
the infant Saviour. 

Though I did not doubt but that the cave in which 
I stood really afforded shelter to the blessed Virgin 
— for it is still a common practice among the East- 
erns to lodge their animals in subterraneous stables 
— yet I found it very hard to realise the peculiar 
sanctity of the spot ; all that I saw was so utterly 
at variance with the notion I had formed of Beth- 



332 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



lehem^ and the stable attached to the inn, where 
the young child was/' and over which the star 
rested. 

After leaving the convent, we returned to our 
encampment, and mounting our horses we rode 
along the road towards Hebron, in order to visit 
the famous pools of Solomon. An hour's ride over 
a very rough road brought us to them : they are 
three in number, below the level of the high road 
from Jerusalem to Hebron ; and even for the present 
day would, I suppose, be considered most stupendous 
works. There is more or less water in all three, 
though the one furthest from the road contains the 
most. They were built as reservoirs to supply 
Jerusalem with water, and which function they 
perform to the present day by means of a cistern or 
aqueduct extending all the way to the city by way 
of Bethlehem. 

We returned by a different and far prettier road 
through some densely wooded valleys — and reached 
our tents as a nearly full moon was commencing to 
throw a flood of light over the birthplace of our 
Lord. 

It was late before we sought our couches. The 
moon was so bright and clear, and the night so per- 
fectly soft and silent, that we were most unwilling 



WE RETURN TO JERUSALEM. 333 

to retire to our tents ; sitting hour after hour on the 
brow of the hill where we had pitched our camp^ 
sheltered by an olive-tree, which had grown in the 
uncertain moonlight into twice its actual size, we 
gazed upon Bethlehem and the massive old convent, 
which, supported by its heavy buttresses, stood 
boldly forward into the scene around us, high above 
the plain, and made doubly prominent by the broad 
belt of white mist, which, rising in thick volumes 
from the Dead Sea, shrouded all the country beyond. 

A couple of hours' gentle riding the next morning 
brought us back, by way of Rachel's tomb and the 
Convent of Mar-Elyas, to our old quarters in Jeru- 
salem. 



334 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



CHAP. XXV. 

LAST DAYS IN JERUSALEM. 

Every one who wanders to any distance from 
England^ wlietlier a proficient in the art of drawing 
or a perfect ignoramus as to its very rudiments, 
seems to consider it his duty to carry with him a 
great box full of black lead pencils, a twelve month's 
supply of india rubber, and such reams of drawing 
paper as would enable him to make a panorama of 
his whole tour. Being thus amply stocked with all 
the necessary implements, if he does not actually 
produce anything worthy the great dome of the 
Colosseum in Regent's Park, or capable of super- 
seding Albert Smith's series of pictures at the 
Egyptian Hall — still he generally manages, by dint 
of severe labour and utter disregard of noon-day suns, 
to present his friends, on his return to England, with 
an innumerable quantity of odds and ends, and half- 
finished sketches of nearly all the people, places, and 
buildings it has been his lot to set eyes on. However 
poor a draughtsman he may be, no object presents a 
sufficient amount of difficulties to deter him from 



THE traveller's LAST SKETCH. 335 



attempting to place its likeness on his drawing- 
board. If lie has been up the Nile and remained 
for some time in Cairo^ the chances are that^ by the 
time he reaches Palestine, he will have become dis- 
gusted with his multitudinous abortive efforts, and 
will have consigned his paper, pencils, and india 
rubber to the lowest depths of his portmanteau, 
refraining from scattering the result of all his labours 
to the winds only in the hope that they will even- 
tually become the property and pride of some kind 
and considerate sister. J erusalem, from the summit 
of the Mount of Olives, is generally his last sketch. 
For some time past he has been tottering on the 
verge of the idea that he was not born for an artist, 
when the two long hours that he spends beneath a 
white cotton umbrella, struggling in vain to make a 
correct note of its long, irregular lines of castellated 
wall, enclosing countless white-domed houses and 
clustering minarets, completely kick him off that 
stage upon which he has been so long endeavouring 
to sustain a part. 

If 1 thought it likely that any of my readers 
would doubt the truth of this statement, I would 
give the names and addresses of several of my tra- 
velling companions in a note at the bottom of the page 
to whom they might refer ; but I am in hopes they 



336 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



will be content with my own experiences on the 
subject^ which resulted in my being quite tired with 
putting in, and rubbing out, and commencing again, 
and, lastly, in tearing up each individual attempt, 
restoring my drawing materials to the pocket of my 
shooting coat, and a walk back into that city which 
was so averse to having its portrait taken. The day 
on which I ceased to fancy myself an artist was a 
great fete with the Mussulmen, and swarms of 
pilgrims, in holiday attire, were joyously engaged in 
forming processions on the sunny slopes of Mount 
Moriah and in the valley beneath, to go to Neby 
Moussa, the mountain of Moses ; and what with the 
shouting of the men, the lengthening ziraleet of the 
women, the waving of banners, and the firing of 
many guns, which floated continuously up from the 
crowds assembled like a moving rainbow on the hill, 
the whole atmosphere around and above them was 
filled with noise and gaiety. 

Our sojourn at Jerusalem was now drawing to a 
close, and what little time was left us was devoted 
to purchasing horses and in numberless other pre- 
parations for a month's ride through Syria ; though, 
as luck would have it, we managed to find a few 
minutes for very nearly getting into a scrape. 

TTandering we did not know exactly whither, but 



EXPELLED FROM THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. 337 



somewhere in the vicinity of the Mosque of Omai% 
we chanced to pass under a gateway into a large 
open space. Whilst we were wondering where we 
had got to, we became aware that sundry small 
stones and bits of orange peel were being throv/n in 
our direction ; and, on turning to see whence they 
came, and, if necessary, to remonstrate with the 
offenders, we observed numbers of men and boys all 
running towards us. Of course our first impulse 
was to walk off in the opposite direction, totally 
careless whither it might lead ; but, to our annoyance, 
we met green turbans coming from every quarter, 
who seemed to take a great deal more interest in our 
movements than we fancied they had any business. 
We at last determined to make a stand, and were 
speedily surrounded. Not understanding a single 
word of Turkish, we were at a loss to answer the 
multitudinous cries and queries which were addressed 
to us from all sides. Concluding from the direction 
of their outstretched arms that we were to return 
whence we came, we retraced our steps, and, our 
progress considerably accelerated by pushes and vo- 
ciferations in an angry tone of " Yessukh, ya Na- 
sarani ! " we at length reached the gateway which 
had introduced us to all this excitement. Here our 
attendant crowd paused and watched us with much 

z 



338 



EASTERN EXrEBIENCES. 



laugliter, as we made off up the street we had 
originally left^ followed by a stray stone or two from 
the boys. 

When we reached our hotel, we enquired the 
meaning of the word " Yessukh ! " and found that it 
meant " It is forbidden ; " and on our relating our 
adventure to Mohammad, he told us that we had 
got by mistake into the outer court of the Mosque, 
and that it was well for us we had gone no further, 
or it mi2:ht have fared worse with us. 

My last day in J erusalera being Palm Sunday, I 
rendered myself at the early hour of four in the 
morning beneath the great dome of the Sepulchre 
Church, in order to be present at the sunrise mass. 
As usual on such occasions, there was a great deal 
of excitement and ill-feeling displayed among the 
different sects : all were armed with palm branches, 
with which they strove to enforce their various 
opinions ; and we thought it quite time, after having 
been jostled about for an hour or so, to retire from a 
scene which, as the sun was not yet up, and there 
were only half a dozen candles and a couple of 
dimly-burning lamps to assist in his absence, cer- 
tainly wanted more light thrown upon it than was 
produced by the noisy multitude, whose only object 
seemed to be that of making a row, and seeking for 



JERUSALEM AT KIGHT. 



339 



opportunities of assault and battery with their 
pahn-branches. 

Before retiring to bed^ I ascended to the house- 
top^ to have one more look at the Holy City before 
the bustling moment of actual departure arrived. 
It was a lovely nighty and the great dome of the 
Sepulchre Church loomed larger and seemed nearer 
than by day. Afar off, resting lightly upon the 
Eastern ramparts^ glanced beautiful in the moon- 
light the lofty cupolas and well-proportioned domes 
of Omar and El-Aksa^ like stars of the first mag- 
nitude among the countless domelets of the inter- 
vening and surrounding houses. Behind me, sturdy 
and strong, stood the almost imperishable tower of 
Hippicus, destined — ^if Mussulman forebodings have 
any foundation — ^to see Jerusalem again overthrown; 
and in the hands of conquerors. No mueddin now 
from the minaret's gallery urged the waking Mus 
sulman to prostrate himself in prayer ; gone to bed 
were all the singing-boys ; closed were all the coffee- 
shops; and, save the occasional barking of a dog 
prowling about in search of food, the whole city 
slept. 

Filled with regret at the thought of leaving it all 
behind me on the morrow, I still lingered on the 
house-top, unwilling, whil e it was yet in my power. 

z 2 



340 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES, 



to have done with gazing on a scene upon which the 
Saviour must so often have looked. Was not the 
general aspect of the city the same now 'as 1800 
years ago ? Beneath me lay the pool of Hezekiah, 
and behind me the tower of Hippicus^ as then ; the 
streets were as narrow and as steep as when our 
Saviour walked along them; and, except that, on 
looking eastwards to the Mount of Olives, I should 
have seen the Temple marked against the sky instead 
of the minarets and dome of Omar, Jerusalem was 
almost the same. 

Notwithstanding the amount of levity with which 
I have alluded in these pages to the numerous sacred 
spots in and about the Holy City, I certainly did 
not follow the prevailing fashion of doubting their 
identity. I endeavoured, from first to last, to 
believe, so far as it was in accordance with the 
dictates of common sense, every thing that my 
guide told me — my principle being, that as the 
shortness of my visit did not give me time to sift 
the "whys" and "wherefores" of the case, I derived 
more pleasure from fancying them all true, than by 
continually struggling, as the majority of travellers 
are prone, to find out a reason for laughing at 
them. 

All Christian travellers, whether credulous or 



A FEW REFLECTIONS. 



341 



the contrary, stand, the first day of their arrival in 
Jerusalem, on the same ground, and, beyond all 
question, are in that city, where the Saviour 
spent the greater part of His life, and where 
eventually upon Calvary He died. This granted, 
I found it impossible to sympathise with any one 
who tried to throw every thing — the site of thisy or 
the actual existence of that — overboard altogether, 
as supremely ridiculous, and without foundation. 
What more likely than that anything, however 
trifling, in connection with so great a fact in the 
annals of the world as the descent of God's own Son 
to earth, should have been treasured up in the minds 
of those who loved Him, and of whom there must 
always have been a few ; and that the greatest 
delight these chosen few took in calling to mind 
that Saviour, was by handing down from father to 
son the very spots where this precept was enun- 
ciated, or that lament uttered ? 

But, however weak this argument, it is only 
reasonable to conclude, that I remember all the 
points of real or supposed interest with far more 
pleasure than the man who entered Palestine, and 
finally left it, the disposition ever uppermost in his 
mind to disbelieve or sneer at all he heard or saw. 



342 



EASTEEX EXPEKIENCES. 



CHAP. XXVI. 

Nx\BLOUS. 

Haying sent on the tents and baggage, with di- 
rections where to encamp for the nighty my friend 
and I, in company with three other English tra- 
vellers, who had left Cairo a week or ten days 
before I had, to proceed to Jerusalem by way of 
Mount Sinai, bade a final adieu to the Holy City ; 
and, making our exit through the Jaffa Gate, we 
soon after struck into the Damascus road, and in 
half an hour, ascending to the summit of a slight 
eminence, we looked our last upon its old grey 
walls, and its mingled mass of domes and minarets, 
which spired shiningiy into the evening sky. 

Our horses were all in excellent condition, and 
unable to control our spirits at the thoughts of the 
pleasant month we were about to spend almost 
entirely in our high pommelled Turkish saddles — 
(albeit, that the saddles themselves had nothing in 
common with our anticipated happiness, for such 
uncomfortable pieces of horse-furniture I trust I 



KUINS OF SILON. 



343 



may never again have anything to do with) — we 
every now and then broke into a headlong gallop 
over the soft turf with which the road was edged on 
either side at intervals, leaving the dragomen far 
behind, whom long experience had taught to hus- 
band their steeds' strength against the heavy work 
we should have to encounter. 

About an hour after leaving Jerusalem we passed, 
on our left, the half-ruined village of Ramah, the 
ancient Gibeah, and at half-after six, p. M., we 
reached our encampment at Beer, distant from the 
Holy City four hours. 

After sun-down it became very cold and gusty, 
and so dense a mist came gathering round our tents 
as quite to shroud a nearly full moon from our 
view. 

Striking the tents at sunrise the next morning, 
we came, after five hours' riding, through a pretty 
and fertile country, to some ruins situated at some 
distance from the road, marked in our maps as 
Silon. 

All Eastern writers, and especially Dr. Robmson, 
have determined this spot to be the site of the 
ancient Shiloh, where was the Ark of God, and 
where the Tabernacle was first set up by Joshua. 
We paused here for half an hour to rest our horses 

z 4 



344 



EASTERN EXPEEIEXCES. 



and to partake of lunch. Attracted by the sight of 
Frank travellers, several men came out of a villao-e 
not far off. and beo-an to talk to the drawmen. 
They seemed at a loss to know why so many Eu- 
ropeans came out of their road to see these ruins; 
and supposing that our object must be to find money 
or treasure of some kind^ they informed us that we, 
like all others^ were doomed to disappointment, for 
that they had searched a hundred times in every 
nook and corner, and if there ever had been any- 
thing worth taking, we ran a poor chance. 

Leaving Shiloh, and passing the village of Le- 
bonah, or El-Lubban, we descended, after a ride of 
thi^ee hours, into the beautiful plain of Mukna, 
vv^iich lay stretched out before us as far as we could 
see, bounded on either side by lofty mountains. 
Merely skirting this plain, we soon began a gradual 
ascent of the mountains on our left, till we reached, 
about a quarter of the way up, the high road to 
Nablous. Along this road we travelled for rather 
more than an hour with the most delightful view 
over the plain beneath and the distant mountainous 
country, till we arrived at the point where the 
mountains are divided by the valley, which branches 
off from the plain towards Nablous, between Mounts 
Ebal and Gerizim. AYinding round the base of 



A BUEGLARY. 



345 



Mount Gerizim, we entered the valley in which 
Nablous, the ancient Sychar^ is situated. The 
town, embosomed in the richest foliage, is built on 
the hill side, and is of some considerable size, vvith 
numbers of minarets tapering up into the sky above 
the trees. We pitched our tents, just beyond the 
town, on a grassy knoll, surrounded with gardens 
and overhanging a brook, which rushed by within 
hearing, beneath the shade of some mulberry trees. 
Whilst engaged, after dinner, with a rubber at whist, 
Mohammad came with a solemn countenance to say, 
that as the people of Nablous were a great set of 
thieves, it w^as necessary to keep a good watch 
through the night. The other gentlemen with 
whom we were travelling quite laughed at the idea 
of being robbed. How was it possible," said 
they, unless any one came into the tent? And 
we should like to see any one go as far as that 
without waking However, to make doubly 

sure, they engaged a guard from the town to v/atch 
at their tent door ; whilst our dragoman, Moham- 
mad, placing no reliance upon any guardianship 
but his own, spared us the expense of hiring 
watchers, and agreed to mount guard, himself and 
loaded carbine, as usual. 

Wishing our travelling companions good night. 



346 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



we retired to our tents^ which had been pitched at 
some little distance from theirs; and going quietly 
off to sleep, we trusted the morning w^ould find us 
alive, and all our property safe. 

The first thing we heard on rising w^as, that our 
friends' tent, notwithstanding the hired watchers 
and their own extreme wakefulness, had been cut 
into during the night, and one gun, two saddle- 
bags, containing clothes, &;c., and other valuables 
abstracted, without any one being the wiser, until 
daylight discovered the robbery. Thanks to our 
own dragoman's care, ive had lost nothing : but 
much as we felt disj^osed to joke our friends at 
their having been so sure that the least noise within 
a hundred yards of the tents would have woke them, 
we felt that it would be cruel, as we stood looking 
at the traces of the burglary, and heard them 
lamenting, among other things, the loss of a favourite 
fowling-piece. 

On questioning the guards who had been paid to 
prevent such audacity, they declared that, quite un- 
consciously, they had all dropped off to sleep. Ini- 
quitous as such a proceeding would have been on 
their part, we could not help suspecting that they 
had been wide awake enough to have committed 
the crime themselves, especially as one of their 



Jacob's well. 



347 



number was missings having been obliged, as they 
said, to return to his work in the town before the 
sun rose. 

Acting on the suspicion, our friends proceeded 
with the remainder of the guard before the Cadi, in 
order to try and recover, by means of the bastinado, 
their stolen property; whilst my companion and I 
mounted our horses, and rode back along the road 
we had travelled by the day before, as far as the 
foot of Mount Gerizim, in order to visit Jacob's 
well. This well is situated a little below the level 
of the road, about a mile and a half from the city, 
and presents the appearance of a large mound with 
a hole in the top. Dismounting from our horses, 
we let ourselves successively down into this hole. 
When our eyes had accustomed themselves to the 
darkness, we found that we were standing in a 
vaulted chamber, very much dilapidated, in one 
corner of which was the well at which our Saviour 
sat and talked with the woman of Samaria. On 
dropping a stone into it, the words of the text were 
verified, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and 
the well is deep ; " for it was comparatively quite a 
long time before the sound of the stone, arriving at 
the bottom, broke faintly upon our ears above. 
Very probably the vaulted chamber in our Lord's 



348 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



time was a building erected over the well for cool- 
ness^ and where travellers coming from Jerusalem 
would rest to refresh themselves before entering 
the town of Sychar^ and w^hich custom would na- 
turally have led to such a conference as took place 
between our Lord and the woman of Samaria. 

When we got back to Nablous, we found that, 
thouo;h our friends had been eno;ao;ed the whole 
lime with the Cadi, and though several of the guards 
had been subjected to a most severe bastinado, in 
the hopes of extorting confession, no tidings had 
been gained of the robbers. However, one man, 
whose account of himself had, I suppose, been 
more slip-shod than the others, had been thrown 
into prison ; and, as in the case of the watch, the 
Cadi held out hopes that the gun, &c., v^^ould 
shortly be forwarded to the British Consulate at 
J erusalem. 

Whilst striking the tents, a deputation of women, 
headed by the mother of the unfortunate man now 
in prison, came out of the city to intercede for him. 
The poor mother, whilst all the other women kept 
uj) a well-sustained howl, came frantically towards 
us, and not being able to determine which looked 
the most kind-hearted amongst us, began to kiss all 
our toes promiscuously, as w^e sat on our horses, all 



ADIEU TO THE WOMEN OF NABLOUS. 349 

ready to start for our day's journey. Till the drago- 
man explained their object, we were perplexed to 
know what they wanted. At first, in the pride of 
our hearts, we conceived that the inhabitants of 
Nablous in general were so sorry to lose us, that 
they had selected all the raost beautiful of their 
women to entreat us to stop a little longer. Being 
pretty certain that the man for whom they were 
shedding all these tears was the culprit, we told 
them it was no use imploring us, the law must take 
its course. When they found that we were not to be 
entreated, they changed their demeanour, and with 
one accord began to curse us in a manner which, if 
the violence of their gestures was any criterion of 
the bitterness of their words, must have been dread- 
ful to hear; but as we were in happy ignorance of 
what they were talking, or rather screaming about, 
and the dragoman only laughed at them, we rode 
off without paying any attention to the showers of 
dust and small stones which followed us. 

It may seem to have been a rather reckless pro- 
ceeding, the having half a dozen men bastinadoed, 
and one man more severely than the rest, and finally 
thrown into prison, whilst we quietly rode off with- 
out ever coming to any conclusion as to where and 
by whom our property had been taken ; but the fact 



350 



EASTEKN EXPERIENCES. 



was, that we had by this time seen quite enough of 
Eastern courts of justice to be quite certain that, if 
the man had taken the gun, he would long ere this 
have tipped a wink" to the Cadi to that effect, 
who only waited our departure to become the happy 
possessor of it by the presentation of a mere trifle 
to the man, who now, with a self-possession truly 
wonderful, lay writhing beneath the whip of the 
kawass. 

The morning was far advanced before we had got 
clear of Nablous and out of hearing of the execrations 
of its women, so that, as we had a long day's journey 
before us, we were obliged to hurry our horses and 
mules along. In about an hour's riding we came to 
where the road divided, leading in a northerly di- 
rection on our right, over the hill to Yanin, and 
whither we sent the mules with orders to encamp 
near the town ; whilst we followed on our horses the 
other branch to the north-west, along a stony valley 
towards Sebaste, the ancient Samaria. 

After a toilsome ride of three hours up and down 
and along the hot sides of an unusually broken and 
rugged range of mountains, we arrived, at one P. M., 
at the village which occupies the site of the ancient 
Samaria. It is situated on the summit of a hill, 
standing alone in the centre of a mountain basin. 



KUINS OF SAMASIA, 



351 



The most conspicuous object rising above its rather 
neatly built houses^ and visible from a great distance, 
is the handsome tower of a Christian church, dedi- 
cated to St. John the Baptist, but the architecture 
of which allows of its bearing no earlier date than the 
times of the Crusaders. It is a ruin of some extent, 
and its lofty walls, pierced with many windows, still 
stand almost entire, enclosing a large open space 
partially converted into a mosque by the inhabitants. 
On the further side of the village from the church, 
we came upon the scattered remnants of many a 
palace and temple, with which, in centuries gone by, 
the beautiful city of Samaria was adorned. Stand- 
ing on the brow of the hill, we gazed over many 
acres of ground covered with large squares, and 
long avenues of erect and fallen columns, with here 
and there great blocks of masonry, which once might 
have gone to swell the lofty proportions of some 
triumphal arch. Descending the hill-side, and wind- 
ing in and out among the limestone columns at its 
base, we soon looked our last upon Samaria, and 
were pushing on to gain our encampment at Yanin 
before daylight forsook us. 

All the afternoon we rode across a succession of 
plains freshly green with the springing crops of corn 
and millet, and separated from each other by sliglit 



352 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



eminences. Xumerous Tillages, all bearing names 
which I have found it quite impossible to remember, 
and all holding places in the varying scale of po- 
verty and dirt, crov>'ned the summits of nearly 
every hill we passed. 

Late in the day an event occurred, which tended 
to raise us very considerably each in his own par- 
ticular estimation, though I can hardly hope that 
the conclusion we foimed of each other will come 
home to the minds of all who may read this journal, 
as such a perfect ut sequitur. 

The shadows of what few trees lay sprinkled 
about the sides of the hill we were ascending were 
leno'theninor in the evenino; sun, till their summits 
waved far down below amono; the millet fields in 
the plain, as we approached the notoriously badly 
conducted, worse principled village of Jeba. Our 
party, consisting of six, all well mounted and armed, 
rode through its single street (doubtless the " High- 
Street," if we had been sufficiently learned to have 
deciphered the Arabic inscription which we saw 
traced on the corner house) carelessly enough, 
paying but little attention to the various impertinent 
remarks and distorted noses (they seemed to be 
quite ignorant of the effect produced upon every 
Englishman by the application of the thumb, backed 



A COUP-DE-MAIN. 



353 



up by the four outstretched fingers) which were 
directed at us from all sides. We had scarcely got 
clear of the village^ when^ on looking back, we ob- 
served several of the men picking up large stones, 
with every intention of pitching them at our heads. 
Having previously determined what to do, should 
their daring reach such a pass, we only waited for 
the first stone to fly harmless among our horses' 
legs, when suddenly wheeling round, we charged at 
full gallop back again amongst the assembled vil- 
lagers. Swinging our rhinoceros-hide whips above 
our heads, we tore down the High- Street," dealing 
pain and vexation on either side of us. The in- 
habitants, who didn't seem to possess such a thing 
as a gun, or I suppose they would have produced 
it pretty quickly, fled, expostulating in every di- 
rection. Bent on our work of chastisement, we re- 
turned at the same pace up the now deserted High," 
and only drew rein at its extremity, at finding the 
whole of Jeba assembled in an open space, w^ith the 
women in front to entreat us to be gone. After 
pulling one man (whom we had detected throwing a 
stone of most extraordinary dimensions) out of his 
own house, in order to thrash him with more comfort 
to ourselves, we condescended to receive a most 
humble apology, to which the whole village sang a 



354 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



chorus ; and then turning our back upon Jeba^ we 
rode away, thus giving them another opportunity 
for exercising theu' faculty of stone-throwing if they 
had been so minded. So complete was our victory 
that we almost regretted afterwards we had not 
relieved them of a few sheep and horned cattle, 
which we might have carried away as trophies of 
our Jeba coup-^de-main. 

Soon after losing sight of the subjugated village, 
we gained the summit of a high range of mountains, 
whence we had the most glorious panorama spread 
out for our admiration. Hardly noticing the lesser 
hills and broken country immediately beneath us, 
our eyes rested upon the far off plain of Esdraelon, 
which, bathed in the richest tints of a Syrian sun- 
set, swept past Jezreel and the Little Hermon, away 
to the bases of the mountains of Nazareth. How 
long we might have remained gazing upon this 
beautiful scene, I know not, had we not been 
warned by the dragoman, who all this time had 
been altering his horse's gui:hs, occasionally kicking 
him when he sidled away, that we still had some 
miles before we reached Yanin. Winding down 
the steep mountain-side into the undulating country 
below, we rode through a succession of dark green 
clive groves, until we entered, in two hours, a dell 



JEZREEL AS IT IS. 



355 



extending along between naked rocks all the way 
to Yanin^ a distance of about three miles. 

The sun, which had for some time disappeared in 
the west, had left no last gleam to guide us to our 
tents; and had it not been for the glimmering of 
our camp fires at some distance from the city, we 
might have been long in finding them. 

After a quiet night and no further burglaries, 
though we had been led to expect something of the 
kind here, we struck our tents at seven, a. m., and, 
riding for two hours across a broad plain, we arrived 
at Jezreel, situated, like all Syrian towns, on the 
summit of a hill. Beautiful as Jezreel may have 
been once with Ahab's palace and gardens, and 
Naboth's vineyard (for the latter must have of ne- 
cessity been also beautiful, or a king would never 
have set his heart upon it), it is so no longer : a few 
mud huts, about the same number of inhabitants, 
and double the number of dogs, form the town and 
society of Jezreel as it is. 

From the brow of the hill on which it stands we 
had one of the most interesting as well as beautiful 
scenes laid out at our feet in the whole of Syria. 
The view on the left was bounded by the range of 
hill which we had crossed the day before, and which 
we now saw extending far away westwards to the 



356 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



Mediterranean, terminating in the bluff promontory 
of Mount Carmel. Immediately opposite, on the 
further side of the grand plain of Esdraelon, which 
lay stretched out beneath us in all its length and 
breadth, rose the mountains about Nazareth ; while 
on the right the grassy slopes of Little Hermon, 
with the village of Shunem at its foot, shut out 
Mount Tabor and all the country beyond. Without 
turning our heads either to the right or left, our 
eyes rested upon the entire stage, as it were, upon 
which were played all the acts of the Second Book 
of Kings, in connection with Elisha and king Ahab. 
The entire length of the road along which the pro- 
phet ran before the chariot of Ahab was before us, 
from the summit of Carmel to the Gate of J ezreel, 
where perhaps we were standing. Just below us, 
on the side of the hill, must have been Naboth's 
vineyard, while on the right lay the little village of 
Shunem, which the prophet so often visited in his 
walks> and where he raised the Shunamite woman's 
son to life. 

Often when I had sat at church in England, 
listening to the reading of the ninth chapter of the 
Second Book of Kings, I had been struck with 
its excessively dramatic character, when Jehu was 
anointed to be king over Israel in the room of 



YIEW FEOM JEZEEEL, 357 

Joram, and when at the head of his company he 
was observed^ by the watchmen on the towers of 
Jezreel^ directing his headlong course over the 
broad plain of Esdraelon towards that city : and 
now with redoubled force did that chapter recur to 
me, as I stood on the heights of Jezreel with the 
whole scene before me, barring the presence of Jehu 
and his chariots. One difficulty which had always 
presented itself was now removed — viz.^ how the 
different watchmen, who had been despatched at 
long intervals from Jezreel with messages to Jehu, 
who was driving furiously " towards the city, 
managed all of them to arrive, to deliver their 
messages, and to fall into the rear of his train ; and 
yet that so long an interval should elapse before he 
actually arrived at the city, that J oram had time to 
collect an escort befitting his station as king, and 
go forth to meet him. I say this difficulty was 
done away with, for I now saw, that as Jehu had to 
cross the whole extent of the great plain of Es- 
draelon, he must have been observed coming by the 
watchmen two full hours before he could arrive at 
the city, which would have given Joram ample time 
to have dispatched his several messengers, and also 
to have summoned his soldiers, when the chariots 
had approached so near the city that the watch 

A A 3 



358 



EASTERN EXPEHIENCES, 



men were able to announce them, by their being 
so furiously driven, to belong to Jehu the son of 
Nimshi. 

Descending from Jezreel, and skirting the eastern 
extremity of Esdraelon, we passed through the vil- 
lage of Shunem, at the foot of Hermon, and round- 
ing a shoulder of that mountain, we came in sight of 
Mount Tabor, with the village of Nain not far from 
us on our right. 

An hour after noon we arrived at Deberath, a 
village at the foot of Tabor, and where we pitched 
our tents under some olive trees. After resting for 
an hour, we commenced the ascent of the mountain, 
by no means a difficult one, occupying us about an 
hour. The whole mountain side, but especially 
towards the summit, is thickly foliaged with the 
holm-oak and the arbutus ; and among the high grass 
grow so many rare and beautiful flowers, that it 
seemed like Avalking through the most carefully 
tended pleasure grounds in England. The summit 
is a piece of table-land covered with ruins, and 
almost every description of tree and shrub. We 
spent an hour or so enjoying the extensive prospect ; 
and in examining the ruins, which cover a large 
area, we traced in many places the remains of walls, 
and at intervals of towers and bastions. In the 



SUMMIT OF MOUNT TABOH. 



359 



centre we penetrated into several vaulted chambers ; 
whilst running nearly all round was a deep and wide 
moat^ crossed in some places by stone bridges. Tra- 
dition has fixed this mountain as the scene of the 
Transfiguration, and it is therefore the resort of 
numbers of pilgrims ; to which latter fact countless 
bits of old boots, and remnants of pocket-handker- 
chiefs hanging from the lower branches of all the 
trees, bear witness.* 

* It is the custom of pilgrims in the East always to leave 
behind them small portions of their wearing apparel, as me- 
mentos of their visits to different holy places. 

B. It is a good thing that those of our own countrymen 
who are given to inscribing their names wherever they go, are 
sufficiently educated to enable them to dispense with such a 
custom. I need hardly say, that an elm-tree bedizened with 
the corners of thousands of pocket-handkerchiefs presents a 
considerably more ludicrous appearance than even a garden- 
seat covered with initials. 



A A 4 



360 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. XXVIL 

NAZARETH. 

One never appreciates English scenery so much as 
when its counterpart is stumbled upon some few 
thousand miles away from the white cliffs of our 
dear old Island. Without fear of contradiction^ I 
assert that all the country round Mount Tabor, and 
thence in a northerly direction towards Galilee^ 
might, with every reason, be quoted as, if pos- 
sible, surpassing what even we fastidious people 
in England would be induced unqualifyingly to 
praise. 

We were in our saddles shortly after sunrise, and, 
skirting round the base of Tabor, rode on towards 
Galilee. Shady valleys watered by tiny brooks, 
which raced sparkling from the mountain above us 
along their cool depths, ushered us down great 
woodland aisles on to broad park-like plains tim- 
bered with sturdy oaks ; across the glades gleamed 
brightly in the morning sun birds of every variety 
and plumage ; skylarks shook their feathered throats, 



OUK SYRIAN MORNINGS. 



361 



a>s^ fluttering for a moment at our feet, they soared 
singing upwards into the cloudless sky ; whilst high 
over our heads, but often approaching within range 
of our guns, circled royally, and with undisguised 
contempt for our powder-flasks and shot-belts, that 
king of birds, the eagle. 

At times we found ourselves winding up densely 
wooded hill-sides, our horses with difficulty forcing 
for themselves a passage through the brake and tall 
hilfeh grass ; whilst our mules could be heard with 
their tinkling bells far in the rear, quite lost to 
view, but sometimes appearing one at a time, as they 
emerged in single file from among the bushes, 
lingering for a moment upon a little promontory 
of mossy rock, before plunging again into the 
thicket that lay between us. High above us, the 
barrels of their guns continually flashing among 
the trees as they caught the sun, scampered in 
twos and threes our light-hearted, eternally-singing 
muleteers, the end and object of their lives being 
always to take short cuts." 

We too were in the best of spirits; and as we 
cantered on, whenever we came to an opening ahead 
of the caravan, in common with all other living 
things, we revelled joyously in the delicious warmth 
of a Syrian morning sun. 



362 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



A little after noon we gained the summit of a hill 
inmaediately oyer Tiberias^ commanding a most lovely 
view of the town^ surrounded with old walls and fast 
crumbling towers^ which^ jutting out a few yards into 
the lake^ have for centuries been reflected on the 
glassy surface of " deep Galilee." 

Another hour saw us encamped about half a mile 
to the south of the town, on the edge of the lake, 
our tent pegs almost washed by its tiny waves, and 
close to the baths which were erected some few years 
back by Ibrahim Pasha, over some hot springs. 
From our tent-doors we looked upon a truly beau- 
tiful picture : to the left the old town with its towers 
seemed as if reposing on the surface of the calm lake; 
ill the centre, at the distance of forty miles, the 
interval charmingly diversified with the slopes 
and broken summits of numerous lesser mountains, 
rose the snowy summit of Greb el-el-sheikh, the great 
moimtain, or, as it is better known to travellers, the 
Hermon of the Bible ; whilst the right was filled in, 
on the fiuther side of the lake, with the rugged and 
still inhospitable country of the Anazees or Gada- 
renes. 

After bathing, we strolled along the banks in the 
sunset, making bouciuets of the numerous beautiful 
flowers which abound here, occasionally giving assis- 



LE ROI DES PUCES. 



363 



tance to one of our party, a most indefatigable ento- 
mologist, in chasing rare butterflies, and other field 
sports. 

Between our encampment and the town we ob- 
served many broken columns, and large stones lying 
in the lake, a few feet from the shore. These 
are the sole remnants that we saw of the city whither 
our Saviour so often resorted frpm his native town of 
Nazareth, but still the view we had from our tent- 
doors was the same as ever : the icy summit of Her- 
mon towered glistening up into the blue sky, the 
same to-day as in the time of the Psalmist; and 
stretching along the opposite shore lay the country 
of the Gadarenes, uninviting and barren as in the 
days of our Saviour. 

The town itself, which from a distance looks 
poverty-stricken and ruinous in the extreme, offered 
us no temptation to examine its interior, the more so 
as Mohammad, when first Vfe came in sight of it 
this morning, became visibly agitated, shrugging his 
shoulders and turning up his nose, at the same time 
turning to us, and saying, " Voyez vous. Monsieur, 
cette mauvaise ville ? le roi des puces y demeure." 
Now considering that we had kept up for the last 
four months a running fire of maledictions upon his 
innumerable subjects in other parts of Syria and in 



364 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Egypt^ we feit that to approacli tlie very court of his 
Majesty would be to pass the Rubicon of swearing, 
and go mad at once. 

The reason that the town of Tiberias has fallen 
to so low an ebb of misery, was an earthquake 
of a very terrible character which visited this city 
in the year a.d. 1837; and as yet the inhabitants 
have hardly moved a finger to repair the damages 
then incurred. Massive walls lie either shattered 
on the ground, or stand rent asunder in a dozen dif- 
ferent places, whilst numerous heaps of rubbish mark 
the spots where once stood houses. 

Leaving the blue depths of Galilee behind us on 
the next morning, and riding southwards, we came, 
after six hours, to the village of Cana, prettily 
situated in a hollow, and surrounded with groves of 
pomegranate trees, diversified with numerous acacias 
and carob trees, beneath the shade of which we 
lunched, and gave our poor horses some rest, who 
were nearly teazed to madness by the flies. 

Cana is inhabited almost entirely by Greek Chris- 
tians, and as their Easter festivals were going on, we 
were unable to see what is generally shown to tra- 
vellers; among other things, one of the water-pots, 
from which was poured the miraculously made wine. 
I cannot say that I took this disappointment very 



WE RECEIVE A TURKISH BEY. 365 

much to heart, for I almost doubt my being able to 
have credited its identity. 

Another two hours' riding brought us over a 
mountain of some elevation down into Nazareth, 
where we pitched our tents beneath some olives just 
outside the town, instead of going to the convent. 
Before sitting down to dinner our dragoman came to 
us with a troubled countenance, to say that the only 
fountain whence we could obtain water, that of the 
Virgin, was in the hands of the Turkish soldiers, who 
would not permit our servants to draw without an or- 
der from their colonel. Accordingly to his quarters 
we repaired, where he received us most courteously ; 
and pipes and coiFee having been discussed, and com- 
pliments exchanged, we stated the cause of our visit. 
Of course, as we anticipated, he was only too proud, 
considering the assistance that the English were ren- 
dering his lord and master the Sultan at Constan- 
tinople, to be of any service to us, and immediately 
dispatched a soldier with an order to allow our men 
to draw to their hearts' content. In return for his 
politeness, we asked to be honoured with a visit in 
the evening, which he complied with; and eschewing 
wine-glasses, drank so much raw brandy from a tea- 
cup, that he perfectly astonished us by wishing us good 
night about eleven o'clock, p. m., and walking toler- 



366 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



ably erect out of the tent without support of any 
kind. 

The next day being Sunday we remained en- 
camped — a proceeding which was much approved of 
by our muleteers^who^ being Greek Christians, prefer- 
red spending their Easter thus, to trudging after our 
horses for nine or ten hoiu's beneath a hot sun. This 
day will be remembered by the different members of 
our party, among other incidents, for a grand junc- 
tion dinner," of which we partook in the cool of the 
evening outside the tents. 

Forming two parties, each with our own servants, 
our custom had ever been to dine separately, and to 
indulge in a pleasant reunion afterwards over a rubber 
at whist; but to-day being Sunday and the Greek 
Easter, and being encamped at Nazareth, and for 
various other weighty as well as trifling reasons, we 
agreed that we should all dine en masse, and that the 
two cooks, each of whom fancied himself the best in 
existence, should try and outdo each other. Halifa 
and Haroun, as the two were named, kept us in one 
continued roar of laughter the whole time : the ex- 
citement under which each laboured to elicit our 
praises was something fearful ! It was agreed that 
each should take it in tm^n to provide the various 
dishes; that is to say, Halifa was to make the soup. 



THE KIVAL COOKS, 



367 



and that by the time that was discussed, Haroun 
should have something else, a pilaiF or a ragout, in 
readiness, and so on. If they had kept to this ar- 
rangement, all would have passed off quietly enough, 
but as celerity seemed to them the great thing, our 
meal became a scene of the greatest confusion; for 
as Haroun had concocted his pilaff before the soup 
was ready (each had his own cooking apparatus), 
Halifa detected him trying to dish up before his right 
turn came : this made the latter bounce up to us to 
expostulate, and then in the middle of his sentence 
off he rushed to bring the soup as it was : a neck and 
neck race then ensued, the pilaff winning by about 
a second. Then came an animated discussion, Halifa 
declaring that we ought to have the soup first, 
because he had been told to lead off ; Haroun implor- 
ing U8 to eat his pilaff, because he had been able to 
put it on the table first: then, without waiting to see 
what we were going to do, they hurried back to their 
several fires, to try and outstrip each other in the 
next course. I need hardly say, that they cooked 
enough things to have lasted us a week, though, if 
they had only supplied us with food enough for an 
hour, we should never have consumed it in that time 
for laughing. Towards night our meal drew to a 
close ; and bestowing an equal amount of praise on 



368 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



each^ we managed to pacify their ruffled tempers, 
tliough I fancy they looked at each other with green 
eyes for several days afterwards. 

Strolling about after dinner in the vicinity of the 
tents^ just at that interval when in the East you may 
actually watch the struggle between night and day, 
and see the former advancing with rapidly increas- 
ing strides across the plain, flinging the heavy folds 
of its black mantle after the latter, which, retreating 
to the very mountain tops, lingers there but a few 
short moments, as if to impart what little light it 
has remaining to the myriads of stars above, which 
are seen in another quarter of an hour shivering far 
and wide across the dark vault of heaven — just at 
this interval, hearing the clatter of a horse's hoofs, 
and the sound of an enquiring voice in the road 
beneath, I turned in that direction, and was shortly 
after met by my Polish friend of the Nile, who 
had come from Jerusalem by sea, and had ridden 
across from the port of Caiffa, at the foot of Mount 
Carmel, in order to visit the shrine at Nazareth, 
where hearing that we were encamped in the neigh- 
bourhood, he had ridden out in order to ask me to 
come and dine with him at the convent. A very 
few words sufficed me to explain the impossibility 
of such a proceeding; but for sociability's sake, I 



STEOLL THROUGH NAZARETH AT NIGHT. 369 



followed him to his quarters in the town, and 
passed the remainder of the evening with him over 
cigarettes and coffee. When I again turned out to 
retrace my steps to our encampment, it was so in- 
tensely dark, that if I had not been sure of my 
way, I should have been very doubtful of my 
chance of falling in with my tent before sunrise. 
As it was, I declined the accompaniment of his 
servant with a lantern, and wished him a cheerful 
good-night. I had hardly advanced fifty yards and 
turned three or four corners, before I found myself 
completely puzzled as to how to proceed next ; and 
whilst stumbling on, managed to kick up a dog which 
lay asleep across the road. With a snarl and a growl 
the animal trotted off, but not before he had roused 
another dog hard by into a low bark. Some other 
dog hearing this, felt it his duty, I suppose, to carry 
on the conversation, so he barked also, but more 
loudly than the last. Immediately on this several 
others, unwilling that the ball should stop rolling, 
threw in a chorus in right good earnest. Very con- 
scious of my perilous position so late at night, and 
without a lantern, if the animals should once begin 
to collect, and so encourage each other to attack 
me, I turned round without a moment's hesitation 
and walked back towards the convent. But a walk 

B B 



370 



EASTEEN EXPERIE^'CES, 



Avas soon cliangecl to a run, for by tliis time all tlie 
dogs in Xazaretli were awake, and were racing 
down every street, hardly able to keep their growls 
in their months, so eager did they seem to bite 
somebody. I need hardly say that it was not very 
long before I was standing on the door-step of the 
convent ; and as the light streamed out through the 
open door^ it shone into the eyes and among the 
teeth of about thirty wolf-like animals, crowding 
together under the opposite wall ready for any- 
thing. Imploring now to be provided with what a 
few moments before I had rejected, I walked back 
in safetv throuo-h the town, for thouo:h one doo; mav 
almost be brave enough to attack you in the dark, 
a lantern will put a hundred of them to flight. 
People accustomed only to English dogs will hardly 
understand the danger I was in ; but these animals 
in the East partake more of the nature of the 
wolf, and though arrant cowards in single combat, 
they are able to collect in such large numbers that 
they C|uickly spur each other on to commit any 
enormity. In proof of this there is a story told 
in Cairo of three men who, walking down to the 
river late at night vrithout a lantern, were at- 
tacked by some dogs, who, collecting to the fearful 
number of three hundred, fell upon them, and 



SUNRISE NEAR NAZARETH. 



371 



before any help could arrive, had completely eaten 
them up. 

Rising on Monday morning none the worse for 
our enormous dinner of the preceding eyening, we 
got into our saddles two full hours before sunrise, 
and striking into a road which led over the hills at 
the back of Nazareth, we rode on ahead of the 
mules towards Mount Carmel. 

After some time we came to where the road 
divided on the right towards Acre: here we paused, 
in order to send the mules under the charge of Mo- 
hammad to the latter town, with orders to pitch the 
tents on the sea-shore, a few hundred yards from 
the walls ; and then again pursuing our course to 
Mount Carmel, we rode for about two hours throu2:h 
a second edition of the Tabor park-land, studded 
with oaks. The morning mist, which had hung 
heavily to the mountain side on leaving Nazareth, 
so as to render the air quite chilly, was now rapidly 
clearing away, or, where it still remained, was so 
saturated with the warm glow of the early sun, that 
as we looked down through it among the inter- 
vening trees upon the plain beneath, we amused 
ourselves with fancying the scene to be one of 
Danby's pictures, Sunrise near Nazareth." 

After descending into the plain, four hours' ridlngi 

B B 2 



372 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



with the sea always in sights and the range of 
Carmel on our left^ brought us to CaifFa^ a small 
town built close on to the sea^ much in the style of 
those on the Corniche road between Genoa and 
Kice^ and which had often struck me^ when tra- 
velling between those two places, as presenting a 
semi-Italian, semi-Oriental appearance. Continuing 
our ride through its single narrow street, and tra- 
versing the wooded plain on the further side, we 
arrived at the foot of Mount Carmel, the bluff pro- 
montory of a long mountain ridge, Avhich running 
out to sea for some distance, forms the southern- 
most side of the Bay of Acre. A very tolerable 
road leads up from the plain to the summit, upon 
which stands the famous Carmelite Convent of St. 
Elias. Rather more than seven hours after leaving 
Nazareth, we dismounted at the doors, and were 
most courteously received by the Padre Carlo, a 
personage well known to all travellers by this route. 
As he concluded we were hungry, he jokingly pro- 
posed to try what the refectory couJd supply us 
with ; but first," he said, you would like to wash 
your hands;" and so saying, he conducted us 
through a succession of pretty little bedrooms, 
nicely furnished, leaving one of us in each : but as 
there were many more bedrooms than there were 



CONVENT ON MOUNT CARMEL. 373 

of US, he was saved the trouble of resorting to any 
expedient for stowing us all away, as the book of 
riddles and conundrums has it of tlie old lady, who 
managed to put ten gentlemen into nine bedrooms, 
giving each a separate apartment. 

By and by we all sat down to a leg of mutton 
and potatoes, the good Padre presiding, and amusing 
us the while with French anecdotes of the convent, 
its various visitors, and himself When we had 
jBnished, he took us over the convent. The mas- 
sive simplicity, so to speak, of its design, and all its 
arrangements, pleased us excessively, but especially 
the chapel, which being quite devoid of tapestry 
and all superfluous ornament, formed a striking con- 
trast to the numerous Greek and Latin Churches, of 
which we had lately seen so much in Jerusalem, 
and which are so loaded with tapestry, gilding, 
and painting as to produce a most painful effect. 
The form of the chapel was circular, beneath a 
dome with four deep recesses, one on each side, 
occupied by altars : a few steps below the high 
altar led us down into the so-called grotto of St. 
Elias, hewn out of the natural rock, unadorned by 
tapestry of any kind, the only attempt at display 
being four silver lamps, which are kept constantly 
burning, to shed their united light upon a shnple 

B B 3 



374 



EASTERN EXPEEIEXCES. 



slirine. On the left of this grotto we were shown 
the spot (the sarcophagus having been removed) 
where the remains of Matilda^ Queen of Richard 
Coeur de Lion^ were interred. 

Before taking leave of the Padre (for we purposed 
sleeping in our tents^ beneath the walls of St. Jean 
d'Acre)j we ascended to the flat roof of the con- 
vent, which commands a view of the entire bay, and 
what was once considered the impregnable town of 
Acre. It was from this position that the Padre told 
us he was a spectator of the siege in 1840, and of the 
final blowing up of the magazine. 

Thanking him for all his attention, and leaving a 
donation in the convent box, we again mounted 
our horses, and descending into the plain ; and 
retracing our steps through Caiffa, we rode along 
the sands the whole way to Acre, a distance of 
about ten miles, enjoying the soft evening air, and 
amusing ourselves with bathing our horses' feet in 
the small waves, as they broke upon the shore. As 
we had given orders to Mohammad to encamp near 
the sea, we fully expected to find the tents pitched 
and our tea ready on arrival, so that our vexation, 
after a long day's ride, was great at finding no traces 
of either mules or tents. Thinking they might 
have mistaken our directions, and have encamped 



WE LOSE OUR TENTS. 



375 



on the other side of the town, we rode thither ; but 
still nothing was either to be seen or heard^ save a 
few herons and the distant murmur of the city ; so 
w^e rode back, to have another look on the other 
side, but again we found ourselves all alone, this 
time without the herons. Rapidly the sun went 
down, throwing a flood of light along the calm sea, 
gilding the shattered walls of Acre, and crimsoning 
a few fleecy clouds, which seemed to have risen 
from some nether world, as if to receive him for the 
night, and, in the absence of twilight, it soon became 
perfectly dark. 

As it was now getting serious, we proposed 
dividing, and sending Achmed, our friend's dra- 
goman, off in another direction, to scour about, 
shouting " Mohammad ! " agreeing, in the event of 
either party meeting with success, to make the sea 
our trysting-place. 

A few minutes served to separate us all in dif- 
ferent directions, and I found myself riding quite 
alone, in anything but a serene state of mind ; my 
horse stumbling continually over a stone, or putting 
his foot in a hole. Coming every now and then to 
a pause, I listened long and painfully for the well- 
known sounds of our camp, the singing of our mule- 
teers, or Mahommad's angry tones, as he bestowed 

B B 4 



376 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



his usual amount of kicks upon the cook ; but all 
that came to break the stillness of the night, save 
my own voice, were those of my different com- 
panions, sometimes afar oiF, and sometimes nearer, 
shouting the word which we had agreed upon, 
coupled with a few English expletives. After a 
time, I made my way back again to the sea with 
much difficulty, for it was so dark that I could but 
just make out the outline of my horse's head. By 
degrees, each having met with the like success, we 
were all collected with the exception of Achmed, 
whom we now seemed to have lost as well as the 
tents. 

As it was now really getting late, we determined 
to procure a lodging of some kind in the town, 
rather than sleep out upon the sands ; but when we 
came to the gates, we found them closed for the 
night, and the only answer that we could get, after 
a quarter of an hour's knocking and shouting, was 
something to the effect of taking ourselves off." 
As we had no 84-pounders to enforce our demands 
for admittance, we were obliged to raise the siege, 
and return to the sea. Achmed still not having 
made his appearance, we concluded that he must 
have fallen in with Mohammad, so, as a last resource, 
we determined to strike inland, along the road which 



THE TENTS AKE FOUND. 



377 



he had taken^ and then, if this failed, to make the 
best of some trees, and go supperless to sleep. 

After riding along for some distance in silence, 
what was our joy to hear Achmed's voice, shouting 
Ya Howadji ! " We quickly responded, and pre- 
sently came up with him, accompanied by Mo- 
hammad, Our first remark was brimming with 
exasperation, as we asked Mohammad where on 
earth he had stowed away the tents ; nor was our 
wrath appeased by the cheerful way in which he 
answered, Ah, Messieurs, je suis ravi de vous voir, 
j'ai cru certainement que vous etiez perdus, et vous 
voila! les tentes sont dans un endroit bien joli, 
d'ici une demi heure precisement, ou est le jardin 
d'Abdallah Pasha.''* We were perfectly speechless 
with anger, so, following him in silence, we came, 
after forty minutes' sharp walking, to our encamp- 
ment, very tired, but so hungry, that we almost 
forgave Mohammad on account of the relish with 
which we devoured our suppers. 

* I give our dragoman s answer in the language in which he 
always addressed us, though, if it is not as perfect as it should 
be, I would rather the reader laid it at his door, albeit, that I 
believe Mohammad's French was faultless. 



378 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES, 



CHAP. XXVIIL 

LEBANON. 

When in its palmy days, Acre must have been an 
exceedingly handsome city, and it is melanclioly in 
tlie extreme to see how totally it has been bereft of 
all its pride. Passing under a large and somewhat 
heavy gateway, we strolled along its almost deserted 
street, flanked on either side by loftier and more 
substantial buildings than I remember to have seen 
any w^here else in the East, and at length reached 
the bazaars. In these arcades were centred all the 
bustle and activity of the town, which consisted of a 
few women goibg their rounds selling bread, about 
tico sellers of stuffs sitting listlessly smoking over 
their unheeded wares, a barber who seemed about to 
shave himself for want of a customer, and half a 
dozen dogs lying asleep wherever a gleam of sunshine 
found its way on to the ground through the torn 
roof. Fearful of being seized with the " blues," we 
hurried away towards the ramparts ; but here, more 
than ever, destruction and desolation stared us in 
the face. Wherever we turned, ruined houses, large 



TYKE, 



379 



heaps of rubbish, and tottering walls told a terrible 
tale of what British cannon had done. In one un- 
fortunate house, whose only merit was that it still 
stood upright, we counted no less than twelve gun- 
shot wounds, in one of which the ball still rested. 

Leaving Acre, we continued to ride all the morn- 
ing along the sea, though at times we mounted along 
the rocks to a great height above it. During the 
afternoon we passed the famous " ladder of Tyre,'^ 
which was made by Alexander the Great, and con- 
sists of a succession of steps, or rather ledges in the 
rock, carrying the road over an immensely high cliff. 
At 5 P.M., we encamped in a field not far from the 
sea, about a mile to the south of Tyre. 

The next morning, having sent on the baggage to 
Saida, or Sidon, a day's journey hence along the 
coast, we mounted our horses and rode into Tyre, or 
Sur, as it is now called. 

The modern town still stands on the same island, 
which was converted into a peninsula by Alexander's 
mole, where once dwelt the merchant kings of Tyre. 
Riding along its scantily peopled, though, for an 
Eastern town, its scrupulously clean and symmetrical 
streets, we presently arrived at its furthest ex- 
tremity, a distance, I should suppose, of nearly a 
mile. Here dismounting, and climbing among the 



380 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES' 



rocks down to the sea^ we looked upon all that 
remains of Tyre and its isles. That once ruag- 
nificent clty^ whose ports gave shelter to the world's 
fleets^ whose buildings were palaces^ and whose in- 
habitants were princes^ lies buried here ; and Time 
is rapidly destroying the very monuments which he 
himself raised to her memory along the shore over 
which she once reigned — to wit^ many columns and 
sculptured blocks of stone, over and around which 
the blue waves of the Mediterranean ceaselessly 
break and eddy, and among which the fisherman 
moors his boat, as he engages in his daily occupation. 

Leaving Tyre, and passing beyond the isthmus, 
we gradually left the sea, and in little more than an 
hour's riding across the plain, we arrived at a broad 
and deep river, called by the Arabs Xar-el-Casmia. 
Crossing it by means of a fine bridge, consisting of 
a single arch, we again approached the sea, and in 
three hours arrived at Sarafend, or Sarepta, the 
Zarephath of the Old Testament, a ruinous village, 
not far from the sea, built on the slope of a hill, 
where dwelt Elijah with the widow, whose son he 
raised to life. Xear to Sarafend we passed a small 
Khan, where for a minute we thought of resting our 
horses and eating our lunch ; but it was so hot, and 
the sea looked and sounded so refreshing, that we 



SAID A. 



381 



continued on thither and indulged our bodies exter- 
nally as well as internally. 

Our road now lay the whole way along the sea to 
Sidon^ the scenery as we approached it getting more 
beautiful and fertile every step nearly that we took, 
till at length the town itself burst upon our view, 
with the old citadel on the summit of a hill to the 
left, said to have been built by Louis IX., A. D. 1253. 
Embosomed in a forest of freshly green trees, among 
which glittered in the sun the gilded crescents of the 
various mosques, the consular flags fluttering gaily 
in the breeze, we indulged in many an exclamation 
of delight as we rode along, unanimously pronouncing 
Saida indeed a beautiful place. As we approached, 
we fell in with numberless holiday groups — ladies 
mounted on gorgeously caparisoned donkeys, and 
dressed in cerise-colored balloons, their absurdly thin 
lace yasmuks pending so coquettishly from beneath 
their large kohl-tinted eyes, that if they had only 
lived in the Middle Ages, their lords would probably 
have spent the greater part of the twenty-four hours 
in hurling their gloves at all strangers whom they 
deemed gazing with too curious an eye on the 
pretty mouths but half-concealed beneath ; sober 
grey-bearded Turks, also mounted on donkeys, to all 
appearance filling the capacity of husbands to the 



3S2 



EASTERN EXPERIEXCES. 



clierry-colorecl balloons beside which thev rode^ and 
^yho, if they had lived in the Middle Ages^ would 
have done more wisely by keeping their gloves on^ 
than by throwing them at any one likely to pick 
them up ; and besides the ladies and the old men, 
there were young men mounted on fiery but ill- 
conditioned horses, whose ears and tails were but 
just discernible, by reason of their gigantic saddles 
and extensive bridles. 

Just before entering the city, we passed an old 
Roman column lying by the road-side, on w^hich we 
traced a Latin inscription, containing the names of 
Septimus, Severus, and Pertinax, which Maundrell, 
W'ho travelled this way 200 years ago, gives in his 
account of his w^anderings. Passing through the 
cemetery, bright with oleanders and shaded by nu- 
merous acacias, and riding through the outskirts of 
the city, we encamped on the further side, close to 
the sea, beneath a tamarisk tree. 

Sidon is still a fine bustling town, built on the rise 
of the hill, whose summit is crowned by the castle 
of Louis IX. 

Like all Eastern towms, its streets are crooked and 
very narrow, and rendered more than usually dark 
by the lofty stone houses which line them on either 
side. Though our stroll through it was made early 



RnXS OF THE OLD TOWX. 



383 



in tlie mornings we found tlie bazaars^ unlike those 
of Acre and Tyre, already crowded and noisy with the 
dense throng of Mussulmen and Greeks, who seemed 
to be ^Hiard at it," making their bargains before 
the heat of the day commenced. In different parts 
of the city are several large khans, for the use of 
merchants and travellers ; but as we preferred en- 
camping in the country, we made no use of any one 
of them. In walking along the sea, on the northern 
side of the town, we observed in many parts, half 
buried in the sand, traces of the old city, granite 
columns and large foundation stones. 

Whilst our breakfast was being prepared, I em- 
ployed myself at the tent door in making a sketch 
of this side (the northern) of the city, the centre of 
the picture consisting of a quaint old bridge sup- 
ported by heavy buttresses, connecting the city with 
a most picturesque old fortress of Saracenic archi-^ 
tecture, evidently once a place of great strength, 
though now much dilapidated. At the foot of the 
bridge stands a large important-looking building, 
with all the appearance of an English warehouse, 
though, on our voyage of discovery through the 
city, we found that it was a barrack-house for the 
Turkish soldiery. 

Saida and its vicinity being well supplied with 



384 EASTERN EXPERIEXGES. 

water, the vfhole adjoining plain is occupied by the 
most beautifully cultivated gardens, dense groves of 
orange and pomegranate trees, and orchards pro- 
ducing almost all our English fruit — peaches, pears^ 
apricots, cherries, &c. — extending even to the foot of 
the magnificent range of the Lebanon, which here 
begins to assert a supremacy over everything. 

Fearful of turning the weakest of Sybarites in the 
midst of such luxuries, and also wishing soon to 
reach Damascus, we once more put our caravan in 
motion ; and taking leave for a time of the sea, we 
commenced to toil among the steep passes of Le- 
banon, and at length attained such a height that, 
on looking back for a last view of Saida, which we 
had left with so much regret, it seemed to us more 
like a toy town — its white houses sparkling in the 
sun, and their bases washed by the waves of the 
Mediterranean; these broke upon the shore at so 
great a depth below, that, though we could plainly 
discern the long white line of foam, their sound failed 
to reach us. 

After two hours of the roughest riding, we passed 
close under the castle of Djouni, the residence of 
the late Lady Hester Stanhope. It stands on the 
summit of a eras; which rises alone in the centre of 
a large mountain basin, the valley below being 



CASTLE OF DJOUNI* 



385 



filled with mulberry trees. Our friends' dragoman, 
Achmed, who had been in her service when a little 
boy, as a chibouque-ji, or pipe-bearer, and had lived 
with her many years, amused us by pointing out all 
the different localities that bore upon the history of 
the Arab queen, as we rode along, with anecdotes 
of her mode of life, but which I omit recording, as 
they were only such as we, and I suppose every one^ 
had heard before. At half-past five, p. m., we en- 
camped on a high piece of table-land, commanding a 
fine panorama of the surrounding mountains, not far 
from the Druse village of Kephr-el-Nebrach, after 
having been in our saddles, clambering up mountain 
gorges, for ten hours and three-quarters* 

Fortunately for us the Lebanon, which is so con» 
tinually the scene of fighting and of bloodshed be- 
tween the rival sects of the Maronites and the Druses, 
was now quiet, so that we were able to travel where 
we chose, without fear of being robbed. These two 
sects form almost the entire population of these 
mountainous districts: they are ever at war with 
each other, and, secure in their rugged fastnesses, 
they set the people of the plain at defiance, holding 
themselves to be decidedly their superiors. 

The Maronites are the most devout Christians, and 
are said to reverence the pope more deeply than any 

c c 



386 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES, 



Other Catholics in the world. Their demeanour to- 
wards US as travellers, wherever we fell in with 
them, was courteous in the extreme ; nor would 
they ever permit us to pass through their villages 
without imploring us to go and see their churches, 
and assist in their devotions. 

The Druses, though once the masters of Lebanon, 
have been forced to give way before the lately in- 
creasing power of the Maronites; though such is 
still their esprit de corps^ that a single Druse will 
smite himself proudly on the chest, and confessing 
^^I am a Druse I" will undertake to fight Viiijfour 
Maronites. The rites and ceremonies, even the 
principles of their religion, they keep a profound 
secret, but profess to sympathise with the Mussul- 
men, and hold for their deity, Hakim, the mad 
Caliph of Egypt. • 

At six in the morning; we were ao:aIn in our 
saddles, and, riding through the lovely wady or 
valley of Barook, and continuing to ascend, vre ar- 
rived at ten, a. m., at the highest point of the pass, 
6000 feet above the sea level. Here we paused a 
moment, to rest our tired horses and to enjoy the 
view, which was truly perfect. Behind us we looked 
over Djouni towards Saida and far away out to sea, 
across the blue expanse of the Mediterranean: on 



WE CROSS THE LEBANON RANGE. 387 



our left^ above the higher summits of the range, rose 
the snow-capped mountain of Gebel-el- Sheikh, which 
was seen apparently quite close when at Tiberias : 
before us, on the further side of a broad and fertile 
plain, rose the heights of Anti-Lebanon ; whilst far 
away southwards we fancied we could make out the 
blue mountains of Jud^a. After drinking some 
goat's milk and brandy, the former of which we 
obtained by the payment of a few piastres from 
some Bedouins engaged here in feeding their flocks, 
we commenced our descent into the plain. The 
mountain side being clothed with oak orchards, we 
secured a little shelter from the heat of the sun, 
which was intense. 

About this time I discovered, strange as it may 
seem, that my horse, which from various causes, 
such as being off his feed, striking himself, and 
getting more meagre every day, had been an object 
of much anxiety to me ever since leaving Jerusalem, 
unlike all other horses, preferred going up hill to 
down. He reminded me, though the movement was 
a vice versa one, of the eccentricities of the pilgrims 
in the Desert, who, towards the close of the day, 
when they began to get tired, abandoned all idea of 
following the direct road, and, careless where they 
went, made a point of always going down hill, when- 

C C 2 



388 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



ever an opportunity occiirred^ quite forgetting tliat 
for every descent tliey would liave to make an 
ascent. After mucli anxious thought and observa- 
tion, I found out why my horse was such an 
anomaly ; his crupper was so short, and the saddle 
so large and heavy, that the slightest descent nearly 
cut the poor animal's tail off. Of course, I at once 
hurried to his relief by ridding him altogether of his 
crupper ; and though the only obstacle in the way of 
liis going down hill was now removed, yet still his 
old habit stuck by him, and often, when riding along 
the streets of Damascus, if I stopped to speak either 
to one of our servants or a friend, I detected my steed 
gradually edging his fore legs on to the raised foot- 
way, so as to produce the effect in his mind of 
going up hill. AT'hen we had finished our descent 
of the mountain, we struck across the plain by the 
village of Yub-Yanin, and encamped, after a most 
fatio^uino; ride of ten hours and a half, a little before 
sunset, at Aithy, a village prettily situated on the 
first slopes of the range of Anti-Lebanon. 

To-day for the first time we saw some women 
adorned with those curious head-dresses, which one 
always associates with a journey through the Holy 
Land, consisting of a silver horn, most elaborately 
chased, exactly the shape of a ship's speaking 



WE CROSS THE ANTI-LEBANON RANGE. 389 

trumpet, and is worn on the forehead in a pro- 
jecting position, after the manner of unicorns: a 
white veil attached to the top, and hanging down 
on either side, gives to the wearer a rather pic- 
turesque appearance, though I cannot say I much 
admired either the horns or the veils. 

Having persuaded our muleteers to make one 
day's journey of it, from Aithy to Damascus, instead 
of two, as the custom is, we started, on the third 
morning after leaving Saida, at half-past five, and 
leaving the village of Kasheia on our right, we soon 
after entered the ady Haloue, in parts of which 
w^ere nearly perpendicular rocks, rising to a height 
of 300 feet, not more than a stone's throw apart. 
Along its depths, among dense groves of mulberry 
trees, rushed a mountain stream, brightly reflecting 
the first rays of the sun. Arrived at the further 
extremity of the Wady, we toiled on till noon 
among the steep limestone passes of Anti-Lebanon, 
nearly blinded by the sun's fierce glare, as well as 
baked by its intense heat. 

We next found ourselves on some high table-land 
overlooking a broad plain at our feet, shut in on all 
sides by mountains ; the usual road for travellers lay 
to the left off this plain ; but the quickest mode of 
reaching Damascus was by crossing it, which the 

c c 3 



390 



EASTERN EXPEKIEXCES. 



miileteers were very mucli against, on account of its 
being Anazee or Bedouin country, belonging to 
some ferocious tribes, who \yere always at war witb 
the Sultan, and paid no respect to the property or to 
the persons of Europeans travelling with his pass- 
ports. However, as we had come so far, and we 
much wished to reach Damascus before the closing 
of the gates at sunset, we determined to risk the 
transit. From the height at which we stood, we 
could easily distinguish in many parts of the plain 
their black canvass encampments ; so that it was with 
fear and trembling that we slowly wound down the 
mountain-side, and getting our baggage into some- 
thing like military order, and establishing ourselves 
as guards about it, we commenced our march through 
the robber country. From the height at which we 
stood the plain seemed perfectly level, but we found, 
now that we were upon it, that there were many 
mounds and 2:entle declivities alono; which we could 
travel in safety, without being observed, unless they 
had detected us in the first instance in our descent ; 
and this they would hardly have done except with 
the aid of glasses. To our great satisfaction, we 
reached the further side without interruption, and 
then again journeying on among the limestone rocks, 
we arrived at the last mountain pass, from which 



riKST VIEW OF DAMASCUS. 



391 



point our eyes ranged in a moment of time over the 
whole vast plain of Damascus^ stretching far away 
for hundreds of miles, with scarce an interruption, 
as far as the Euphrates and Bagdad the Beautiful. 
Beneath us, at a distance of four or five miles, lay 
Damascus itself, ^' Scham-el-Shereef," as it is lovingly 
called, " the great and holy city," lying long and 
snake-liKe amid a very sea of foliage, its white 
houses, tapering minarets, and swelling mosque domes 
glittering in the sunshine among the trees. The 
whole scene, far and near, bathed in all the rapidly 
changing hues of a Syrian sunset, was so surpass- 
ingly lovely, that in the words of Mahomet, as he 
drew near to its walls, we exclaimed, This is too 
delicious ! " 

Descending into the plain, we passed many coffee- 
houses, from out of which issued loud cries, worded 
in a mixture of Arabic and Italian, to partake of the 
various refreshments which it was their business 
to dispense to all thirsty worshippers of Mahomet, 

Ya Howadji ! tanl-e-Jdnna ! venite qua ! questo 
buono, taib, si signori ! " Presently we plunged 
into the dense forest in which the city lies so 
deeply set. 

For an hour we continued to ride through it, and 
so massively did the trees meet arching over our 

c c 4 



392 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



heads^ as to exclude every gleam of sunshine. It is 
impossible for me to describe tlie pleasurable sensa- 
tions with which we suddenly entered these cool 
retreats; for the whole day we had been toiling 
among glaring white limestone passes^, exposed with- 
out a means of escape to the fierce rays of the sun, 
which streamed down upon us in all their scorching 
intensity; and now^ unwinding the cloths which 
had bound our heads^ and once more seeing clearly 
and breathing freely, we drank in copious draughts 
of the cool breezes which played across our path 
from among the trees. From a noontide silence, so 
perfect that our very temples broke it with their 
throbbing, we now listened with delight to the rush 
and plashing of streams innumerable, as they ran 
sparkling by, dividing off into as many innumerable 
directions. Still riding on, we passed many gardens 
and fruit orchards ; and occasionally catching sunny 
peeps of the city, down long vistas of Spanish 
chesnut trees, we at last arrived at the gates. For 
a few minutes, as we rode through the suburbs, we 
again met the sun face to face, though declining day 
had subdued its power, and then we again lost it, as 
we entered the labyrinth of straggling bazaars of 
which the principal part of Damascus is composed. 
We dismounted in the outer court of the only hotel 



AREIYAL IN DAMASCUS. 



293 



in the clty^ after having been eleven hours and a half 
on the road ; and^ sending the mules and horses to 
the nearest khan^ we hurried away to dispel the 
fatigues and heats of the last few days in a Turkish 
bath. 



394 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



CHAP. XXIX. 

DAMASCUS. 

So far as size and importance go, Damascus cannot 
compare with Cairo : but the latter has become so 
Europeanlzed since the days of Mohammad Ali and 
the Indian transit, that aU those dreams of Eastern 
luxury and romance in Avhich it is the wont of tra- 
vellers to indulge, as they steam up the Mediter- 
ranean towards the sunrising, are only to be realized 
in all their hoped-for sweetness in the former. The 
few days which I spent in the cool shade of the Da- 
mascus bazaars so completely Orientalized me, that 
I seemed to look back into my past English life as 
one would do among the pages of some intimate 
friend's journal. For four days we did little else than 
wander here and there in the bazaars, those long 
Moorish arcades, which, branching into and off from 
one another, constitute the entire city, and along 
which, from sunrise till late in the afternoon, keep 
ever streaming, silently busy, the gaily-dressed inha- 
bitants thereof No grooms here, as in Cairo, came 



THE BAZAARS. 



395 



shouting and brandishing their whips, for the people 
to make way for an English clarence containing ladies 
in bonnets/' or for a mail-phaeton driven by a gen- 
tleman in a "hat." Save the cry of the sherbet- 
seller, and the ringing of his brass cups, as he invited 
the passers-by to drink of his lemon, rose, or almond 
syrups, no other sound came to break the even mur- 
mur, whicli, emanating from the crowds beneath, 
seemed to hang among the rafters of the Damascus 
bazaars. 

Many hours of the day we spent in the different 
khans for which this city is famous, and where dwell 
the merchants with their silk stuffs and gold work, 
destined to be transported in travellers' portmanteaus, 
as they were in ours, to adorn the drawing-rooms and 
persons of ladies in England. 

The various khans in Damascus are named after 
the Sultans who built them, and are, without excep- 
tion, magnificent buildings. They adjoin the bazaars, 
and are entered through ponderous gateways, on 
either side of which, as at the Horse-Guards in 
Whitehall, stands a mule of extraordinary dimensions 
splendidly caparisoned, acting in the stead of a sign- 
board. On passing the gateway, you find yourself 
in a large court, open to the sky, in the centre of 
which is a fountain. A cloister runs round the court. 



396 



EASTERN EXPEEIEXCES, 



in the shade of which sit collected into groups^ 
smoking their pipes^ or wrangling about a piastre, 
the camel-drivers and muleteers in the service of the 
merchants lodo-ing; in the khan. The walls are o'ene- 

CO o 

rally built of alternate black, red^ or white slabs of 
marble^ like an Italian duomo. At each corner of 
the cloister a stone staircase leads up into a gallery 
running entirely round, and looking into the court- 
yard below. On to this gallery open the rooms oc- 
cupied by the merchant : and here it was that we used 
to sit, inhaling clouds of tumbak from the bubbling 
nargileh, sipping iced sherbets, and listening to the 
plash of the fountain below, or in making offers for 
gold-embroidered tablecloths. 

Strolling out into the bazaars, we used to amuse 
ourselves in practising what little Arabic we were 
masters of, bargaining for trifles which we knew we 
should throw away on the morrow. Often were we 
interrupted by some old duenna, who, guarding a 
black silk balloon, which we felt sure contained the 
pretty wife of some jealous Mussulman, and closely 
veiled herself, exchanged a few whispers with the 
seller of stuffs, and then retired, the purchaser of 
some strange article of female dress. Mixing with 
the crovN'd, or standing in the gateways of the khans, 
we listened to the itinerant vendors of Eastern 



EVENING IN DAMASCUS* - 397 

curiosities chanting the merits of their different 
wares^ but who failed to crowd the pith of what 
they said into three words, as men of that class 
have a happy way of doing in England, advising 
the passenger in a twinkling, as he hurries by 
them, of the name, merits, and exact price of the 
article on sale. 

At sunset the city goes to sleep, the shops are all 
closed; and following all our old Arabian Nights' 
acquaintances, we leave the spice-laden atmosphere 
of the bazaars, and go back to dine at the hotel. 
The mere fact of dining would seem to hurl us from 
the summit of that ladder of Eastern romance to which 
w^e had ascended during the day; and it doubtless 
would have done so, had not the hotel itself helped 
to prolong, and even to add fresh colouring to our 
day-dreams — with its large court-yard open to the 
sky, its deep alcoves, furnished with soft divans, and 
arabesqued in blue and gold, from the marble flooring 
to the carved ceiling above, with verses from the 
Koran, and where we used to dine off pilaffs and 
lamb stuffed with sweetmeats and pistachio nuts, sip- 
ping coffee afterwards in the moonlight, where it 
streamed down among the citron trees into the foun- 
tained court, and sent almost to sleep by the soporific 
bubbling of our nargilehs. 



398 



EASTERN EXPEEIEXCES. 



Dreaming no^y of Shems-el-nihar and lier mucli- 
loved prince of Persia ; now of that gentleman^ who 
on the first night of his nuptials was whisked all the 
way from some exceedingly remote place^ and depo- 
sited in his scanty night-dress, perhaps at the very 
gates through which we had entered the city ; and 
last of all, and not unfrequently, of that rich Emir, 
who, fallins: in love with the beautiful daug-hter of 
the Jew, carried her oft from the streets of Damascus, 
to his mountain palace in the Lebanon, thereby ren- 
dering his once solitary home the abode of happiness 
and love, till in an evil hour came the lady with the 
cold heart ; " — dreaming of all these tales of ro- 
mance, which we had read in childhood, and which 
now seemed to start up before us in sober reahty, 
we used to watch the shadows of the orange trees 
mount higher and higher up the moonlit walls, till 
they waved in the soft night air against our bedroom 
windows, and then we used to separate till the morn- 
ing. Often it chanced that we met before that time, 
for if the mosquitoes and the heat conspu'ed to render 
me sleepless, I used to come out to cool myself on 
the gallery upon which our rooms opened; and looking 
over into the court-yard below, I was allured by the 
plash of the fountain, to which I descended, to find 



EYEKY HOSE HAS ITS THORNS. 399 

one of my companions quietly sitting there regarding 
the stars. 

The river Barrada^ which flows through the centre 
of Damascus^ sending out tributaries in various 
directions^ gives rise to so many fountains and purling 
streams^ that at night, when all is quiet, the whole 
city murmurs with the rush and fall of waters. All 
the best coffee-houses are built over these streams, 
and, embosomed in trees, become the favourite resort 
of the inhabitants. 

The traveller will do well to confine himself to the 
bazaars and the coffee-houses, for should he venture 
beyond, into the suburbs, the dirt, the unpleasant 
odours, and the stifling heat which he will there en- 
counter, will speedily annihilate all the romantic sen- 
sations in which he has been indulging, and with his 
handkerchief to his nose he will make the best of his 
way back. And yet who would complain ? Every 
rose has its thorns, and the briars of Damascus must 
be felt by all who would attain to its wonderful 
sweetness. 

We left the city beloved of Mahomet at the close of 
a week, and in a truly triumphant manner, for it was 
in company with the Polish nobleman and his beau- 
tiful wife, whom I introduced to my readers last at 



400 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Nazareth, and in honour of whose departure all 
imaginable consuls, vice-consuls, and kawasses had 
turned out in their most gorgeous apparel, preceding 
our caravan on fiery horses for some little distance 
out of the city on our road to Baalbec. 



A SUBLIME THUNDEK-STORM. 



401 



CHAP. XXX 

BAALBEC, 

A DAY'S journey from Damascus brought us to the 
range of Anti-Lebanon^ over which we crossed down 
into the broad plain v/hich divides it and the Le- 
banon. 

Whilst riding between these grand mountain 
ranges, and when we were within a few miles of 
the ruins of Baalbec, where we intended to encamp 
for the night, the sky, which had been all day filling 
with clouds, suddenly burst over our heads, and, 
without any warning peals, we found ourselves in 
the midst of a most sublime thunder-storm. The 
dark masses of cloud, v/liich had hitherto been rest- 
ing on the mountain tops, came rolling down their 
sides, deluging us with rain ; flash after flash of 
lightning nearly blinded us, and sent our horses to 
their wits' end ; whilst, from every cavern and gully 
among the mountains issued rolls of thunder, which, 
uniting as they came, broke upon the plain in so 
deafening a crash, that it sounded like the accumu- 
lated crises of a hundred of our Englijeh storms. 

D D 



402 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



Giving our horses their heads^ we allowed them to 
tear along the road at their own pace ; but by the 
time we arrived at Baalbec it was all over, and again 
the sun streamed down upon us in all its wonted 
brightness. 

As the mules were not yet arrived, we tied our 
horses to some trees, and commenced to climb among 
the ruins, which were quite different to any that I 
had yet seen. They consist of one enormous temple, 
covering within a little the same area as that of 
Karnak on the Nile. Formerly it was surrounded 
by an arcade of columns, six of which, still standing 
in an entirely perfect state, now alone in their glory, 
would seem to be ever gazing mournfully upon the 
vast scene of desolation around them, lamenting as 
it were that they only remain the sole guarantees of 
that magnificence of which they once formed but a 
small part. The temple seems to have been fortified 
and garrisoned by the Saracens, for we traced the 
remnants of a wall running round it, the foundation 
stones of which are enormous : one of them we mea- 
sured, and found it to be 65 feet in length. 

For so huge a building as this temple (which tra- 
dition tells us was dedicated to the sun) must have 
been, one hardly expects to find such a profusion of 
elaborate work, so much and such delicate specimens 



TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 



403 



of Stone carving, such a succession of the most ex- 
quisitely moulded columns ; in fact, the whole surface 
of its area, covered with such telling mementos of the 
beauty of its original design, and of the chaste per- 
fection with which it was executed, that though one 
might easily fancy its elegant proportions to have 
appeared very possible whilst merely floating about 
the imagination of its architect, yet when the masses 
of stone which were to aid in swelling out its gigantic 
bulk began to be practically handled, one cannot 
help dwelling with admiration upon the courage of 
the builder, who, when the temple was yet in its 
infancy, persevered in his great work ; and when 
these heaps of masonry had risen high enough to 
enclose within their limits spacious halls and corri- 
dors and long avenues of columns ; and, lastly, when 
the great Temple of the Sun was finished, and when 
the priest or the worshipper could wander about its 
sacred precincts, gazing upon its sculptured walls 
and at the tracery work of its numerous colonnades ; 
— he, much more than we, who only gazed upon the 
wreck and ruin of happier days, must have stood in 
a state of bewilderment, looking up and around upon 
so vast a pile of building, and yet seeing that every 
square inch of wall, ceiling, or gateway was so 
elaborately carved, as to have employed not only 

D 1> 2 



404 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



the ideas^ but the very manual labour of the artists 
themselves. 

The key-stone of the gateway, which leads over 
piles of capitals and broken columns into the prin- 
cipal hall^ has slipped, probably during an earthquake, 
from its original position, and hangs ever on the 
point of crushing all who pass beneath. Perhaps it 
was the sense of beino^ within reach of a lono*- 
threatened danger, that induced us this evening, 
after sunset, to seat ourselves on a fallen column, 
exactly beneath the hanging stone, and to listen as 
the moon got up, throwing a flood of silver light 
among the ruined outworks of Baalbec and down 
into her now deserted hall, to the Count, who, pos- 
sessing a really fine, manly voice, sang to us many 
Polish airs, contrasting them in his own amusing- 
way with our Scotch and Irish melodies. Half the 
night slipped away, and still we sat in the moonlight 
beneath the hanging stone in the court-yard of 
Baalbec ; but the Countess, malgre the warm Bagdad 
capote, in which she had so bewitchingly wrapped 
herself, felt cold at last; so we went back to our 
tents, having made our salaams and also our adieux 
to Baalbec all within a few hours. 

The early morning sun was streaming brightly 
around the splendid ruins as we commenced our 



ARRIVE AT THE FOOT OF GEBEL-MAKMEL. 405 



day's march over the broad plain, on the verge of 
which they stand, towards the mountains of the 
Lebanon, whose summits, glistening with perpetual 
snow, towered up into the clear sky, apparently not 
a mile distant. After riding for about three hours, 
we approached a lofty column, standing all alone in 
this vast plain ; and, swerving for a little out of the 
direct road, we arrived at its base. As there were 
no stones or remnants of other buildings any where 
near, we were at a loss to know what it meant ; all 
that our dragoman knew of its domestic history was, 
that Ibrahim Pasha, passing it one day, planted his 
guns at some distance off, and amused himself for an 
hour in trying their range, though he failed to do 
more than knock a few stones out, thereby damaging 
its personal appearance. Its height, as nearly as we 
could judge by merely looking at it, must have been 
seventy feet, independently of the basement. 

Another hour's riding brought us to the village of 
Derr-el- Akma, situated at the foot of Gebel-Makmel, 
where we found the tents of an American party, 
some of them being out on an excursion up the 
mountains, whilst some were engaged in taking their 
noon-tide siesta. The latter woke up on hearing the 
clatter of our horses' hoofs, and invited us to refresh 
ourselves with some beer before seeking the heights. 

D 1) 3 



406 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Of this offer we gladly availed ourselves ; but much 
as we felt this kindness^ we could not help indulging 
in a good laugh at a blunder which escaped one of 
them during the visit. With evident difficulty he 
strove to keep up a conversation in French with the 
Countess^ who, speaking English perfectly well her- 
self, gave him every opportunity of expressing him- 
self in his native language. As the talk went on 
he endeavoured to explain with what remarkable 
facility he acquired all foreign languages ; how that 
French was all one to him with English ; and Italian 
— -how he rejoiced in being able to converse in that 
soft southern tongue, the whole grammar of which 
was poetry, and when spoken became a song ! During 
a pause, he begged the Countess to partake of some 
oranges on the table ; but on her saying that a glass 
of iced water would be preferable, he drew aside the 
tent door, and shouting to an Arab boy, who an- 
swered to the name of Mike, he bade him bring some 
" Acqua calda ! " The very sound of such a beverage, 
with the thermometer at 100° in the shade, brought 
the perspiration out upon our foreheads ; but when, a 
minute afterwards, Mike came running in enveloped 
in a cloud of steam, which issued from the spout of 
a great kitchen kettle, whose handle was so hot that 
the poor boy could hardly speak for winking his eyes. 



ENCAMPMENT AT AIN ETTE. 407 

we were completely overcome^ and rushing out into 
the hot sun to procure a little shade from the kettle, 
we heard the American blowing up " the boy, for 
a mistake which might have ended in manslaughter ! 
The glass of iced water was at last, however, procured, 
and presented to the Countess, with a thousand apo- 
logies for the delay which had occurred, our host 
said, from never having been able to divest the 
word calda in his mind of the meaning of some- 
thing cold. 

With many thanks for their hospitality, we bade 
the Americans adieu, and were soon engaged in our 
toilsome ascent of Gebel-Makmel, in two hours 
reaching a well called Ain Ette. As there was no 
water higher up the mountain, we encamped at 
one P. M., having thus made a short day's journey of 
only seven hours, though the last two, on account of 
the climbing, had given our horses as much work as 
three times that period would have done on a level 
road. 

Not far from the tents gushed forth from the rock 
a miniature cascade, which the Count and I con- 
verted into a shower bath ; whilst the Countess, lower 
down the mountain, sat beneath the shade of a mul- 
berry tree, and amused herself in making cigarettes 
for her husband. After sunset it became very cold, 

D D 4 



408 ' 



EASTERX EXPERIENCES. 



SO heaping together a quantity of dry wood^ we made 
an enormous bonfire in the centre of the camp : and 
the lurid glare of the flames as they shot upwards, 
mingling with the cold white light of the moon, pro- 
duced a most beautiful effect upon the dense masses 
of foliage which hung over us ; for as the leaves 
waved and fluttered in the night air, sometimes 
catching the light of the fire, and sometimes that 
of the moon, they seemed to dance backwards and 
forwards in a joyous uncertainty as to which of 
the two precious metals suited their complexion 
the best. 

After one of the coldest nights we had yet spent 
since leaving England, we struck the tents at sun- 
rise, and in three hours stood on the simmait of 
Gebel-Makmel, the loftiest of the Lebanon range, 
9000 feet above the sea level, our horses up to their 
girths in snow. I need not say that the view on 
either side of us was grand in the extreme, and 
nothing short of the intense cold would have in- 
duced me to take so hasty a farewell as I did,— of 
the furthest East that I probably am ever destined 
to see. 

We now commenced to descend, leading our 
horses, and hardly able to keep ourselves from slip- 
ping on the ice. Three quarters of an hour after 



THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 409 



leaving tlie summit^ and just below the snow line^ 
we bent our heads as we entered the famous cedar 
grove. For an hour we rested in its deep shade^ 
gazing with unspeakable admiration^ akin to awe^ 
upon those glorious trees, the relics of ages that 
have rolled away. Since Solomon ruled over Israel, 
nations have perished and others have arisen in their 
stead, yet still the cedars stand, thirteen in number, 
easily to be distinguished from the surrounding 
ones by their surpassing grandeur. Their huge 
trunks knotted, gnarled, and torn in a hundred 
places, even now seem well able to bear the storms 
of ages yet to come. Their attendant trees, if 
taken separately, may indeed be admired for their 
size and strength, yet are they very bubbles when 
compared with the giants near which they stand. 
Picking up many of the cones with which the 
ground was strewn, we continued our descent, a 
very rapid one, as far as the Maronite village of 
Bischerre, which we reached in two hours after 
leaving the cedars, and here the road began to 
improve. We were again in the warm Syrian 
climate; soft mulberry leaves and delicate vine 
tendrils brushed our cheeks as we rode along ; and 
soon after passing Bischerre, the road opened upon 
one of the most exquisite pieces of mountain scenery 



410 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



that it is possible for either poet to sing of, or artist 
to pourtraj. 

On either side of the picture before us, towered 
up enormous crags, which totally excluded all fur- 
ther view to the right or left : they seemed as if 
placed there on purpose to force us to centre our 
whole powers of admiration upon the lovely ravine, 
which, commencing from where we stood, wound 
sunnily away between their wooded sides into the 
far blue distance. Along its depths, though hardly 
audible, and looking like a wavy line of white silk, 
thundered the river Kadisha ; whilst hanging to the 
white cliffs on one side, and half-hidden by the 
vineyards, which seemed as if bursting sponta- 
neously from every rent and crevice in the rock, 
was a convent, which, glov/ing in the evening sun, 
and thus appropriately built 'twixt earth and heaven, 
seemed to invite to its peaceful solitudes all who 
were weary of this world's toils and troubles. 

We thought it a very paradise, and quite coincided 
with the author of our chart in marking it as Eden ; 
but whether he meant simply to pay the spot a com- 
pliment, or to assert that here our first parents dwelt, 
I am not able to say. 

On the second day after leaving Paradise," we 
reached the sea at Batroum, a few miles to the 



OUR LAST ENCAMPMENT. 



411 



south of Tripoli^ and in the afternoon crossed over 
the Nar-Ibrahim3 or Adonis river, a stream of some 
breadth and excessive depth, and which is said to 
flow blood on every anAiversary of the death of 
Venus's beloved ; but as the particular day on which 
he succumbed to the boar's tusks was not specified 
in Messrs. Hannay and Dietrichsen's Almanac, which 
my friend carried in his portmanteau, we hardly 
thought it worth while to encamp on its banks for 
the chance of its soon becoming due. 

For the last time we pitched our tents and ar- 
ranged our snug little encampment. The spot was 
a beautiful one ; but this aggravated us, as it led us 
more than ever to regret that, after this evening, we 
were to go on with the old story of houses and 
climbing up stairs to bed with chamber candlesticks. 
Mohammad's savoury mess of macaroni and stewed 
pigeons had been disposed of almost in silence ; 
thoughts of the morrow had diminished the violence 
of those appetites which were the result of our free, 
roving life. Sitting in our tent door, as did Abra- 
ham of old, we looked out over the Mediterranean, 
lying motionless as a sheet of molten gold in the 
sunset. Our pipes and coffee were handed in silence 
from the cook's tent ; our servants felt for us : 
was not the period of their service drawing also to a 



412 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



close? Till a late hour we sat watching the Latakia 
sparklhig in our pipe-bowls, and talking over our 
tent'life; nor was it until the moon, which was on 
the wane, shone wliitely across the oiiy calm, that 
we gathered together for the last time the folds of 
our tent door. 



BEYROUT. 



413 



CHAP. XXXL 

FAREWELL TO THE EAST, 

A RESIDENCE at Beyrout of little more than twenty- 
four hours only justifies me in offering those few 
words of praise which even the steward of the 
steamer that drops her anchor in its bay^ whilst 
taking in passengers for Egypt^ is obliged to confess 
are the due of its beautiful situation upon the 
lowest slopes of the Lebanon^ surrounded with its 
flowering forests of rhododendrons and oleanders^ 
and smiling from one end to the other with the 
many verandahed villas of its Frank residents. At 
sunset on the day after my arrival;, I bade adieu to 
all my travelling companions, and was soon after 
steaming out to sea, on my ay back to Alexandria, 
in the French boat Eurotas. When I retired to 
my cabin the Mediterranean was quiet and calm as 
a lake, but towards morning the wind got up, and 
by the time we reached Jaffa at noon, the sea was 
running so high that we had the greatest difficulty 
in disembarking and receiving passengers. All that 



414 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



day and the next we were at sea^ and on the third 
morning after leaving Beyrout we anchored^ at 
eleven a. m., beneath our quarantine flag in the port 
of Alexandria. 

Again was I obliged to deliver myself up for five 
days' imprisonment^ under the suspicion of having 
got the plague in my pocket; and on being liberated, 
astonished myself by existing for an entire fort- 
night in Egypt in quite a pleasant manner, notwith- 
standing the hot kampseen wind, which blew nearly 
all the time from the Desert, and which, bad as it is 
in the winter, amounts to a positive and dreadful 
infliction in the summer. 

From Alexandria to Aboukir Bay it is a distance 
by land of about fourteen miles; so, hiring a couple 
of extra good donkeys, I started one evening after 
sunset, in company with a friend, arriving in an hour 
and a half at Ramleh, a spot in the Desert sacred to 
the memory of the gallant Abercromby. 

In earnest of the endeavours of a few energetic 
Alexandrians to found here a sort of town without 
shops, whither they might retire in the cool of the 
summer evenings after the fatigues of business, the 
shells of one or two houses have been hastily 
erected, and which, as we approached them noise- 
lessly over the soft sand, in the gathering darkness. 



A TRIP TO ABOUKIR BAY. 



415 



stared at us with their great four-cornered eyes in a 
most ghostly and churchyard-like fashion. 

Mastering the melancholy sensations which we 
felt creeping over us, as we listened to the night- 
winds whistling through and slamming the doors of 
their yet untenanted rooms, we selected the best, 
and cheerfully dubbed it ours for the night. Col- 
lecting some dry wood, we made a little fire on the 
door-step, over which we boiled our kettle; and 
then producing some tea and its usual accompani- 
ments of sugar, butter, and bread, and a bottle of 
cognac from a basket we had carried with us, we 
soon made ourselves very jolly. Starting the next 
morning at daybreak, we trotted our donkeys over 
the Desert to Aboukir, where we arrived about nine 
o'clock. The heat of the day, which was something 
terrifiC;, we spent in the house of a most curious 
specimen of humanity, an Italian, long since natu- 
ralised as a Frenchman, and who here fulfils all the 
necessary functions of a coast-guard, quarantine, 
and custom-house officer. He privately informed me 
that he had served both in the army and the navy, 
but prided himself upon his superior knowledge of 
the latter. His only companion was a young lad, 
over whose education he had presided himself, and 
whose principal accomplishment appeared to be that of 



416 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



bowing, at the same time pulling his forelock of hair 
and blushing, whenever we made the slightest 
movement. Out of charity to the poor boy, I sat 
for a long time very quietly, hoping that he would 
forget what were evidently the special injunctions 
of the old man whenever a visitor was present : 
but so sure as I attempted either to blow my nose 
or look at my watch, he began to bow and blush, as 
if some string inside his coat had been pulled in 
connection with these two operations. 

Seldom seeing an European, the old Frenchman 
was in an ecstasy at our arrival ; and when we 
opened the basket in which we had brought our 
lunch, he hardly knew how to express the intensity 
of his gratification: even the boy left off bowing, 
and looked at the veal-pie as if he understood that 
better than all the salutations in the world. Yv^hilst 
we emptied the basket, he cleared the table of 
sundry signal flags and bits of rope; and producing 
from a cupboard a bottle of home-made Bordeaux 
which he classed as superbe I " to our infinite 
horror, he placed it on the table, with the declaration, 
that in Jus house we should drink his wine and hang 
the expense ! As for our OAvn sherry, he put tha.t 
carefully on one side for us to take back with us ; 
but by this show of hospitality the old gentleman 



RAMADAN. 



417 



was a gainer to a most alarming extent^ on the 
principle that we should not be likely to carry coals 
to Newcastle. 

The meal concluded^ he took us on to the roof of 
his house^ whence we had a complete view of all the 
spots connected with the battle — the island at which 
Nelson dividing his line, came down in two columns 
upon the entire French fleet anchored in shore ; also 
the spot where, three years later, we landed under 
Abercromby. 

In describing the naval engagement, he lauded 
the English up to the skies; but I suspect this was a 
slight attention in return for our sherry, as it is well 
known in Alexandria, that whenever he entertains a 
party of Frenchmen, he proves beyond a doubt that 
the English got the worst of it — a fact which he 
regrets remains only in his possession. 

Returning home in the afternoon, we rode all the 
way to Eamleh in the track of the retreating French 
squadrons, though how different now the scene in the 
quiet solitude of the Desert sunset ! 

A few days before I left Egypt, I was aroused one 
morning out of my sleep by the firing of so many 
guns, that I began to fear that I had been spirited 
back during the night to the days of Nelson and the 
battle of the Nile. However, on descending to 

E E 



418 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



breakfast^ I found that it was tlie proclamation to 
the Moslem worlds from all the forts in and about 
Alexandria^ of the commencement of the great fast 
of Ramadan. By all sincere Mussulmen this fast, 
which lasts for one Arab month, is observed most 
rigidly. It prohibits them, between the hours of 
sunrise and sunset, from either eating, drinking, or 
even smoking. Severe as are these regulations when 
the fast falls during the winter months, it is infi- 
nitely more so when it occurs, as it did this year, 
during the hot weather. 

Those men who are rich enough to eat all night, 
as they are allowed, and to go to sleep during the 
day, are not so much to be pitied; but upon the 
labouring classes, who are obliged to earn their noc- 
turnal meals by working during the hot air of noon, 
one does not know how to bestow a sufficient amount 
of respect. The manner in which they thus acutely 
pay the penalty of adherence to the Mussulman 
creed is truly wonderful: towards sunset all the 
donkey-boys and grooms in attendance upon car- 
riages may be seen, each with his little w^allet con- 
taining provisions slung across his back, watching, 
with countenances expressive of the most intense 
expectation, the sun as it sinks towards the horizon : 
for an instant only after its disappearance there is a 



RAMADAN FESTIVITIES. 



419 



pause, during which the whole machinery of the city 
seems to hang, and all eyes are turned towards the 
principal fort. The donkey-boys, who are a shade 
more careless about religious matters, are generally 
hard at it by this time, and are going away at a pace 
a great deal too severe to last ; but not so the more 
advanced Mussulman : he waits till, in another second, 
the great gun from the fort proclaims that the sun 
has set, and that till it rises on the morrow there is 
a truce to fasting; and then he too spreads his wallet 
on the ground wherever he may be, and whilst he 
makes his coffee, he puffs away furiously at his much- 
loved pipe; unlike the donkey-boy, he commences 
to eat deliberately, though with doubtless as much 
relish, in this manner prolonging the pleasure. 

During the Ramadan, the law against walking 
about the town, three hours after sunset, without a 
lantern is done away with; so, able to dispense with 
my fanoose-bearer, I walked down one night into the 
Arab quarters of the town, where I came upon such 
a scene of riot and confusion, as would be almost in- 
conceivable to any one who had not been out of 
Europe. The shops which had been closed during 
the day were now all open, and brilliant, with every 
imaginable device for showing a light, from a cotton - 
wick to a blazing pine torch. Across every street 

E E 2 



420 



EASTERN EXPEEIENCES. 



was arranged a sort of cat's-cradle of red, blue, and 
yellow paper lamps, whilst beneath was enacting 
such a masquerade, as is seldom equalled even at 
Vauxhall on the night of the Derby stakes. So 
densely crowded with men in every variety of cos- 
tume, and of every grade of ferocity and rascality, 
that having found myself almost by some superna- 
tural agency in the centre of them all, I quite gave 
up all hope of getting out again before morning. 
Here a little space had been cleared for some dancing 
gii'ls, who were delighting the surrounding feasters 
and smokers with the graceful movements of their 
supple figui'es ; there some boys were striving almost 
in vain to raise their voices in singing above the din 
of the crowd. Puppet-shows in great variety were 
exciting bursts of laughter from all who were not 
watching the dancing-girls, or listening to the singing 
boys. Impossible as it seemed, I at last squeezed 
my way back to the Frank quarter, where the dark- 
ness was so great, in contrast to the light I had just 
left, that without my accustomed lantern-bearer I 
had some little diflSculty in finding my way home and 
eventually to bed. 

Shortly after this, walking through the square, I 
read an announcement to the effect that on the next 
evening no less than three steamers were to sail for 



I EMBARK FOR EUROPE. 



421 



Europe — viz.. The Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
pany's screw Bengal to England, by way of Malta 
and Gibraltar; tbe French M. N. Alexandre to 
Marseilles, by way of Genoa; and the Austrian 
Lloyd's Calcutta to Trieste, by way of Corfu. I 
thus had three modes of returning home at my 
disposal; and, after a few moments' consideration, 
having chosen the last, I packed up my portmanteau 
the next morning, and during the afternoon pulled 
off to the Calcutta, which had been advertised to 
sail the first of the three — at 5 p.m., precisely, — 
but, owing to some unaccountable delay, we were the 
last to leave our moorings. First, the French boat 
moved slowly out to sea, her crew waving their hats 
and shouting, ^^pour la belle France!" then the huge 
Bengal steamed majestically past us, with three 
cheers for Old England, the last strains of Rule 
Britannia " floating back on the sunset breeze, as 
she followed in the wake of the Alexandre ; and, 
last of all, we came round head to sea. And when, 
as leaving the land of Egypt, I had watched, long 
after dark, the lights of Alexandria glimmer for the 
last time in the seemingly fast receding South, I felt 
that now in truth I had done with the East. 



E E 3 



422 



EASTEEX EXPERIEXOES. 



CHAP. XXXIL 

IX COXCLUSIOX^ 



The sensations of delight which I experienced on 
landing at Trieste^ and once more setting foot on 
stone pavement/ loitering about the small marble 
tables of cafes^ listening to the rattle of carriages^ 
and mixing in all the bustle and activity attendant 
upon European life, after having been so long away 
in the indolent East^ were sweeter than I had antici- 
pated. So complete a Turk had I insensibly become, 
that, on meeting a couple of unveiled maid-servants 
walking: at larg;e along^ one of the o-alleries of the 
Hotel de la Yille, in which I had taken apartments, 
I felt all my notions of morality and what was cor- 
rect to be outraged ; but before I could remonstrate 
with them upon the impropriety of their conduct, 
they were gone ; and retiring to my room, I called 
to mind, as I unpacked my trunk, the fact of my 
being no longer in the atmosphere of the hareem, 
where women are but exceedingly large babies, as 



THE LAGOON OF VENICE. 



423 



incapable of making a bed as of commanding a 
squadron of cavalry. In the early morning I went 
to Venice. 

Pausing at noon among the shippings the tracery 
work of whose lofty spars and rigging lay reflected 
upon the mirror-like surface of the broad lagoon^ our 
luggage was submitted to the scrutiny of the Austrian 
douaniers, and then we landed. A gondola carried 
me and mine from the steamer to the Riva del Schi- 
avoni ; and as I glided past the Piazza San Marco 
and the palace of the Doges^ I learned to appreciate 
a small portion of her charms, — the bride of that 
blue sea which, lover-like, embraces and kisses her 
on every side. 

For a week I stopped at Venice quite alone ; nor 
did I seem to want other companionship than that 
of my own thoughts. Here at last I had come to a 
city possessed of all those romantic characteristics 
with which it had ever been my delight years ago 
to clothe all continental places, — broad piazzas, 
long vistas of columned arcades, immense cathedral 
churches, so lofty, that windows piled on windows 
up their walls failed to illuminate the mysterious 
gloom which hung about the rafters in their roofs, 
side aisles adorned with great pictures by Titian or 
Tintoretto, the blackened canvass tinted with a 

E E 4 



424 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



Stream of sunshine tbrouo;h some stain-o-lass window, 
marble palaces^ domes^ and bell-towers — all tbese^ 
^nd mucli more than I have time or space to tell of, 
I found at Venice. 

Stepping into my gondola, I entered the Canalazzo. 
Leaning back on my cusbioned seat, with one leg 
thrown carelessly on those little side stools of black 
leather, I gave myself up to the sweet niente of the 
moment, and listened to my domestique de jAace (a 
very shabby individual, who wore an equally shabby 
hat, and would persist in carrying an old cotton 
umbrella beneath a cloudless sky), as I swept silently 
along. " Here Lord Byron lived : there opposite the 
palace of the Foscari: further on that of the Pi- 
sani : " and thus on I went, palaces without number, 
now here, now there, my head ever turning as the 
ceaseless tongue of my guide showered down upon 
me perfect bouquets of noble names. Presently I 
came in sight of the famous Rialto, and the windows 
of my gondola were darkened as I passed beneath 
it; and thus gliding gently on, ever passing between 
rows of lofty palaces, I emerged at last upon the 
open sea on the other side of Yenice. And here 
was a curious sight, — the railroad, the sole con- 
necting link between the glorious city in the sea " 
and the mainland. Even as I lingered, gazing back 



VERONA. 



425 



on what I had left^ the morning train came moving 
quietly from among the domes and spires of the city. 
So I watched it as^ increasing in speedy it ran swiftly 
across the waters on its way to Padua — strange 
contrast between the present and the past ! 

Before I returned to Trieste, I went early one 
morning in the train across the sea to the mainland, 
and spent the rest of that day and the night in 
Verona. This excursion was made simply for the 
sake of seeing the old Roman amphitheatre, which I 
had heard was still in an almost perfect state, and 
also for a stroll about the city, where once dwelt 
Juliet and her Romeo ; and not only did I accom- 
plish both these wishes, but engaging the services 
of an idling Veronese, he piloted me through a 
number of narrow streets to the Capulet mansion 
itself, now a very third-rate hostelry, and where, 
over the massive gateway, he pointed out, that I 
might have no grounds for being sceptical, the family 
arms and motto, deeply engraved in the stone-work. 
In the evening I walked out of the town to some 
beautiful gardens attached to the Palazzo Giusti. 
As I went I met a great crowd following a cart 
guarded by a detachment of soldiers, and containing 
a man in irons. On inquiring who he might be, 
and whither he was going, I was told, " He is a 



426 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



murderer, and he is going to be shot Tvithout the 
city walls." Another quarter of an hour, and I was 
wanderino' amono; the flowers and fountains of the 
Giusti gardens, fearfully contrasting my own lot 
with that of the wretched man whom I had met but 
a few minutes ago, and who w^as perhaps now 
kneeling to receive the bullets of his executioners. 

Leaving Verona at sunrise, I breakfasted at 
Padua. The white mist which had lain upon the 
ground during the night was now melting away in 
the increasino; warmth of the sun, hano:ino; as it 
floated gently upwards among the domes and cam- 
paniles of the city. All the belfries of the uni- 
versity were ringing out, as it seemed to me, a 
merry welcome to some one, though, as the good 
citizens of Padua could hardly be aware of my ap- 
proach, I did not presume to arrogate it to myself. 

A few hundred yards from the university, whose 
halls and quadrangles, swarming with pale-faced 
students, dressed in long black hair, spectacles, and 
meerschaums, fail to excite even a romantic fancy 
for matriculating at Padua, stands the Palazzo 
Ragione, its magnificence centred in one immense 
hall, at one end of which stands Donatello's colossal 
horse, of such proj)ortions that, when, years ago, on 
certain festive occasions, it was paraded through the 



DO^sTATELLO'S GIANT HOESE. 427 

streets of Padua adorned with flowers^ forty persons 
used to sit^ on a level with the house-tops^ upon its 
great broad back. Those times have now passed 
away^ but still the great horse exists ; and whoever 
takes the trouble^ on a moonlight nighty to peep in at 
the windows of the Palazzo Ragione^ may there 
discern^ in the mysterious gloom of the great hall, 
Donatello's giant horse, the fore leg raised in the 
act of trotting, carved so nearly to the life, that it is 
almost a marvel that it has not long ago taken offence 
at the neglect with which it is treated, and trotted 
off to feed among the pine forests of the Alps. 

In the evening I returned to Venice. The 
Piazza of St. Mark, brilliantly illuminated, threw 
the blazing result of a thousand lamps upon the 
lagoon as I pushed off at midnight to the steamer ; 
and at six o'clock the next morning, I again stepped 
on to the quai in front of the Hotel de la Ville, at 
Trieste. That same afternoon I bade a final adieu 
to the shores of the Mediterranean, about which I 
had been lingering so long, and climbing up into 
the imperiale of a diligence, I started for Adelsberg. 

The sun shone out brightly at first, but soon after 
getting clear of the town the sky clouded over, and 
the rain came down in torrents. In no very cheer- 
ful state of mind w e arrived presently at the custom- 



428 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



house^ where all travellers and merchandise^ either 
entering or leaving Trieste^ are examined most rigidly. 
In the course of my peregrinations^ I have met with a 
very fair amount of annoyance, even approaching to 
incivilitv, at the hands of that much-to-be detested 
class " les douaniers ; " but I now look back upon it 
all as the most perfect obsequiousness compared with 
the actual bullying which I here experienced. Not 
only did these tyrants not content themselves with 
inserting their great hands into every corner of my 
valise, but raising it aloft, they turned it topsy-turvy, 
and savagely thumped the bottom. In a moment 
the counter was strewn with all those minor articles 
of dress, over which, up to the present time, I had 
fondly fancied that no one, save the blanchisseuse and 
their owner, would ever exercise the least authority. 
Prints, bracelets, boots, hair-brushes, studs, and 
goodness knows how -many other things, but a few 
minutes since nicely packed away, were now being 
made liay of on the counter. In vain I expostu- 
lated, and coloured with indignation, as I ran after 
my sponge-bag, which, having fallen on to the floor, 
was rolling fast out among the dirty boots of the 
other passengers into the road : in vain I pretended 
sometimes to enter into the joke, forcing a ghastly 
smile as one of them asked how much I had given 



ARRIVAL AT ADELSBERG. 



429 



for a head-dress^ intended for my sister, I had to 
wait patiently till, having satisfied themselves that 
there was nothing very particular there, they bid 
me help them to shove the things in again as quickly 
as possible, lest the diligence should go off without 
me. 

At midnight we stopped, and struggling up out of 
the collar of my great coat, I asked the name of the 
place : Adelsberg ! est ce qu'il y a un passager 
pour Adelsberg ? " said the conducteur : Oui, oui, 
c'est moi," said I, and down I tumbled half asleep 
from the imperiale on to the ground. Almost before 
I knew exactly what I was about, I had paid the 
driver his usual fee, my portmanteau and hat-box 
had been handed down, and the diligence began to 
move on. Running after it, I shouted out, to know 
where the hotel was — C'est la. Monsieur, la-bas;" 
shouted back the conducteur, pointing, I could not 
see where ; and in another minute the huge vehicle 
was rumbling away in the distance. So dark that I 
could not even see the houses with which I knew 
I was surrounded, raining hard, and with not a 
notion as to where the hotel was, I began to feel 
quite unhappy. Not a sound came to break the 
stillness of the night, save the plashing of the rain, 
as it fell heavily from the house-tops. There was 



43a 



EASTEEN EXPERIENCES. 



not a human being stirring, nor could I catch the 
faintest glimmer of any lamp or fire in any of the 
houses. To make matters worse, for the life of me 
I could not find my luggage, which I remembered 
to have seen handed down to me, but which I had 
deserted in my anxiety to know from the conducteur 
the whereabouts of the hotel. 

However, at length stumbling against it, I lugged 
it on to the pavement, and then, feeling my way 
along against the dripping houses, I presently came 
to a door, which to my astonishment was wide open. 
Hoping that it was the hotel, I entered, and hauling 
my luggage after me, making as much noise as pos- 
sible, I found myself in what seemed to be a large 
stone hall. Letting go my portmanteau, I groped 
about, shouting at intervals for the garcon, till at 
last I found the staircase, which I ascended to the 
first floor. Almost in despair of ever being com- 
fortable again in my whole life, I determined to 
enter the first room I came to, and take possession 
of any bed, whether occupied or not. But in this 
I failed, for every door that I tried was locked, so 
as a last resource I set to and beat an alarm upon 
all the doors I could find. After allowing a few 
moments to elapse, I fancied, in the dead silence 
which succeeded to the noise I had been making, 



DIFFICULTY IN GETTING A NIGHT's LODGING. 431 



that I could hear the striking of a lucifer-match, 
and a moment after a foot overhead told me that I 
had been heard. Presently down the stairs^ from 
some garret in the roof, came creeping an old 
woman, with little else on than a night-gown, 
holding a candle above her head. Stammering 
out what little Italian I was master of, I told 
her I wanted something to eat, and a bedroom: 
shaking her head, she answered me in German, 
which was a language so wholly and entirely beyond 
me, that I was obliged to have recourse to a series 
of pantomimes, laying my hand to my cheek and 
shutting my eyes to testify a wish to sleep, and 
munching my tongue as a sign of hunger. Almost 
asleep as she was, she took my meaning directly, 
and in quite a motherly way, relieving me of the 
wet rugs in which I was still wrapped, led the way 
to a room, where, after making signs that there was 
nothing eatable to be had, she left me, only too 
thankful to obtain what a fevf moments since had 
seemed very doubtful — viz. a night's lodging. 

As my stopping at Adelsberg was solely for the 
sake of seeing the celebrated caverns, I was not a 
little pleased, on waking the next morning, to find 
the sun shining brilliantly. The grottoes are distant 
from the village about a mile ; so immediately after 



432 



EASTERN EXEERIENCES. 



breakfast, obtaining a guide, I set out for the moun- 
tain beneath which they extend. 

After waiting for a quarter of an hour at the 
entrance, whilst some men went in to illuminate 
them, I commenced exploring. Leaving daylight 
for awhile, I followed my guide down a long gallery 
cut in the rock, regretting that I had not brought 
an umbrella with me, on account of the heavy drops 
of water which fell incessantly upon my head, and 
at times found their way down my back. When 
we arrived at the extreme limit of the entrance 
tunnel, we turned on the right up a few steps, and 
following the guide's torch, I presently found myself 
standing on a small platform, overlooking a scene 
upon which I had come so suddenly, that for a few 
moments I was quite bewildered. I seemed to be 
clinging like a fly midway up the wall of a vast 
domed hall : high up above me hung down gigantic 
stalactites, reflecting in all manner of colours the 
numerous lights, which, artistically dispersed among 
them, produced an eff'ect quite indescribable. Far 
away down below I could see the river Poik, which 
having found its way into the mountain, seemed to 
be struggling to get out again as fast as possible, 
every now and then pausing as if to take breath 
before it renewed the contest in a deep and placid 



THE CAVERNS OF ADELSBERG. 433 

pool, whose surface was crimsoned with the reflec- 
tion of the coloured stalactites above. In the dis- 
tance was a small bridge, lighted on either side by 
rows of candles, which twinkled hazily like real 
lamps afar off on a foggy night, and below which 
the Poik went tumbling down among the rocks into 
the darkness beyond. Descending a long flight of 
stone steps, and climbing down many ladders, I at 
length reached the brink of the river, and, walking 
along its banks, crossed over the bridge between the 
miniature lamp-rows. After a while, leaving the 
river, I passed along passages and entered other 
caverns, which, though they were not so large as the 
first, were still very wonderful. In many of them 
the stalactites from above, uniting with the stalag- 
mites from below, enabled me to walk down long 
avenues of such columns as would have graced a 
cathedral. The last cavern of all, called by the guides 
"Mount Calvary," pleased me the most, for not only 
are there here stalactites and stalagmites without 
number, but, heaped about in grand confusion, and 
assuming the most fantastic forms, are huge masses 
of coloured rock, which tower up into the darkness 
above, shaping themselves at times into peaks, at 
times into great boulders of crimson and emerald 
green. 

F F 



434 



EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 



After leaving the caverns I returned to the hotel, 
and was picked up by the diligence from Trieste in the 
same doubtful manner, whilst every one in Adelsberg 
Avas asleep, as on the preceding night I had been 
put down. 

Unwilling longer to detain my reader over a 
description of scenes this side the Mediterranean, 
and which, as I remarked in some of the earliest 
pages, ought to be farthest from the mind of any 
one sitting down to write a book about the East, I 
close my volume, at the same time assuring my 
reader, that though he may have seen me last on the 
top of a diligence at Adelsberg, I have since then 
ridden in an omnibus along Oxford Street. 



THE END. 



London : 
A. and G. A. Spottiswooue, 
New-Street-Square. 





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